Examining the Relationships between Factors Influencing Environmental Behaviour among University Students

Environmental awareness and sustainable consumption behaviours of Turkish nursing students

Objectives

This study aims to determine the environmental awareness and sustainable consumption behaviours of nursing students.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was conducted with 380 undergraduate nursing students studying at Faculty of Nursing, Ege University, Türkiye. The Personal Information Form, Environmental Awareness Scale (EAS), and Sustainable Consumption Behaviours Scale (SCBS) were used to collect the research data. Number, percentage, mean, Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z test, t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation test, and linear regression analysis were used in statistical evaluation.

Results

The mean total score on the EAS was 46.12 (SD = 6.60), and the mean total score of the SCBS was 61.83 (SD = 9.10). A significant, moderate, and positive correlation was found between students' environmental awareness and sustainable consumption behaviours. Moreover, students' gender and the people they lived with caused statistically significant differences in the EAS score. The people students lived with, the place where they lived for the longest time, and their perceived income level caused statistically significant differences in the SCBS score.

Conclusions

Nursing students had high environmental awareness and moderate to good sustainable consumption behaviours. It is necessary to include the contribution of sustainable practices to the environment and the effects of these practices on human health in curricula for nurses and thus provide environmental awareness to students.

The complex relationship between carbon literacy and pro-environmental actions among engineering students

Lifestyle choices and consumption play a large role in contributing to per capita greenhouse gas emissions. Certain activities, like fossil fuel ground transportation, long-haul flights, diets with animal products and residential heating and cooling contribute significantly to per capita emissions. There is uncertainty around whether literacy about these actions encourages individuals to act pro-environmentally to reduce personal carbon footprints or to prioritize the most effective actions. This study investigated the relationship between carbon literacy and pro-environmental actions performed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions among undergraduate engineering students at the University of Toronto. The pro-environmental actions by the participants produced an average carbon footprint of 4.8 tCO2 (within the subset of actions included in the survey) which was lower than the average for residents each of Toronto, Ontario, and Canada overall but still higher than the global target of ∼2.8 tCO2e. The carbon literacy by participants was best for high impact actions like ground transportation and dietary choices but less so for air travel and there was mixed awareness for the moderate and low impact actions. For high impact actions and many moderate and low impact actions, participants who thought the action was high impact (even if incorrect) had lower carbon footprints related to the associated activity than those who thought the action was moderate or low impact. The overall relationship between pro-environmental action and carbon literacy was weak. It showed that for high impact actions, there is a slight negative correlation between carbon literacy and personal carbon footprint whereas for moderate and low impact actions, there is a positive correlation.

A Study on the Impact of Ideological and Political Education of Ecological Civilization on College Students' Willingness to Act Pro-Environment: Evidence from China

The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of ideological and political education with regards to ecological civilization on college students' pro-environment attitudes. Based on the survey data of 1622 college students, a series of econometric models are built to understand and test the impact of ideological and political education on students' pro-environment willingness. The results show that the ideological and political education of ecological civilization can effectively promote the environmental will of college students; the accumulation of environmental knowledge, ecological concern, and ecological reflection are the important mediums for the ideological and political education of ecological civilization; and the medium effect of ecological reflection is the strongest. In addition, this study also indicates that the pro-environment willingness of college students and their professional categories, whether to join the eco-environmental association, and other factors have a significant correlation. Therefore, this study reveals the current impact of ecological civilization education and the role of the mechanism for college educators and policymakers to promote the protection of the ecological environment, which provides an important reference.

The Relative Role of Knowledge and Empathy in Predicting Pro-Environmental Attitudes and Behavior

Planet Earth is undergoing unprecedented levels of environmental degradation and destruction at a global scale. Incentivizing people to adopt behaviors that are compatible with a sustainable future will help address the current ecological crisis. However, it is first necessary to understand the psychological drivers of pro-environmental behavior. Here, we examined whether greater levels of environmental knowledge and empathy predicted higher levels of pro-environmental behavior in an Australian population sample. We aimed to advance our understanding of the psychological variables that motivate people to act in pro-environmental ways, while also advancing the ongoing debate amongst conservation scientists regarding the relative importance of fostering empathy. Correlational analyses revealed that objective, verifiable knowledge was a strong predictor of pro-environmental attitudes and behavior. Empathy also correlated positively with pro-environmental attitudes and behavior, but with a dissociation with respect to its cognitive and affective components. Multivariate analyses revealed that knowledge was a stronger predictor of both pro-environmental attitudes and behavior after controlling for individual variation in cognitive and affective empathy. This finding casts doubt on the claim by compassionate conservationists that fostering empathy is the key to solving the current environmental conservation crisis. Future research should aim to extend the present findings by testing whether a more exhaustive test of participants’ environmental knowledge and other measures of empathy, including empathic competencies and the recently developed Emotional and Cognitive Scale of the Human–Nature Relationship (ECS-HNR), yield the same dominance of knowledge over empathy.

Higher Education for Sustainability: A Critical Review of the Empirical Evidence 2013–2020

Higher education for sustainable development (HESD) has grown into a substantial field of research and practice. HESD proposes that higher education will be central in a transition towards more sustainable socio-ecological systems. However, the debates on what should be learned in HESD and how this should be learned have remained conceptually controversial and empirically inconclusive. This review examined the evidence that specific pedagogies and content lead to specific “sustainability outcomes” among graduates. Three hundred and fifty-seven studies published between 2013 and 2020 were analyzed. The reviewed research was case-driven and often undertheorized regarding learning processes and outcomes. Despite its volume, the literature did not provide coherent insights into what should be learned and how. If the project of HESD is to be pursued further, more courage will be needed in creating novel forms of higher education, while more purpose and conceptual precision will be required in future research.

Analysis of Sustainability Knowingness, Attitudes and Behavior of a Spanish Pre-Service Primary Teachers Sample

In the context of climatic emergency, teaching for sustainability is crucial to transform damaging behavioral social paths into sustainable ones. In this contribution, we focus on the relevance of the Degree in Primary Education to reach this change, assessing through the Sustainability Consciousness Questionnaire (SCQ) the sustainability awareness of a sample of 151 students of this bachelor’s degree. SPSS and JASP statistical programs were used for data analyses and graphical representations. The results support that this test is appropriate to estimate the different dimensions of sustainability consciousness of Spanish pre-service primary teachers. Specifically, we found that these students assign higher scores to items of sustainability knowingness and sustainability attitudes above all in the social dimension. Some gender differences are found in sustainability behavior, which is higher in the male subset for the economic dimension. Correlation analysis reveals positive associations between sustainability knowingness and sustainability attitudes, whereas sustainability behavior is positively related to both constructs but only in the social dimension. These results highlight the necessity of teaching sustainability looking for behavioral changes in the Degree of Primary Education.

Environmental Concerns of Russian Businesses: Top Company Missions and Climate Change Agenda

Climate change is on the national agenda of Russia due to this country’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and the expected degree of warming and precipitation increase in its territory. A content analysis of the mission statements of the 100 biggest Russian companies shows that 18.5% of them deal with environmental issues. About half of the companies that declare pro-environmental behavior belong to the energy production and transmission industry. It also is found that more than 30% of all leading hydrocarbon, chemical, and mining companies express environmental concerns in their mission statements. The main environmental priorities declared by the top Russian companies include caring for nature, production ecologization, energy efficiency, and ecological standards. These priorities are related to climate-friendly behavior, but the latter is not stated directly. Direct consideration of climate change in the mission statements of Russian companies is recommended.

Roles of Environmental System Knowledge in Promoting University Students’ Environmental Attitudes and Pro-Environmental Behaviors

This study aims to investigate the role of environmental system knowledge in promoting pro-environmental behaviors. Relationships between environmental knowledge and environmental attitudes as well as environmental knowledge and pro-environmental behaviors were analyzed. Environmental system knowledge includes knowledge of political ecology, sustainable development, environment and ecology, and environmental situations. This study included 128 students enrolling in the elective course entitled “Environment and Development” provided by the King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi in Bangkok city of Thailand and 150 students who were not participating in this course. The results revealed that environmental attitudes of students participating in the course was significantly higher than that of students not attending the course. Only knowledge of the environment and ecology highly correlated with environmental attitudes; on the other hand, diverse environmental knowledge significantly correlated with pro-environmental behaviors. The result also demonstrated that indirect impact environmental behaviors reported by both groups were statistically different, but there was no significant difference in direct impact environmental behaviors. This study suggested that environmental knowledge provided through a formal education could promote environmental attitudes, but it may not contribute to students’ engagement in direct impact environmental behaviors.