Factors influencing pro-environmental collaborative collective behaviors toward sustainability transition – a case of renewable energy

Abstract

The transformation to sustainable social systems requires both individual and collective pro-environmental behaviors. In this study, we quantified the impacts of factors that promote or impede collective pro-environmental behaviors around the use of renewable energy. An online questionnaire was completed by Japanese high school and college students, and covariance structure analysis was performed on groups with strong or weak intention to participate in collective behaviors and groups with rich or little experience with community activities. Our results revealed that the belief that a global environmental crisis can be avoided by individual efforts was negatively related to collective behavioral intention. We also found that environmental education that aimed to enhance attachment to community and social norms, would be effective for the youth with weak collective behavioral intention, but not so for youth with strong collective behavioral intention. It would be more effective for youth with strong collective behavioral intention to learn the practical approaches for community participation and raise awareness of the perceived importance of collective pro-environmental behaviors.

Keywords:

• sustainability transition
• environmental citizenship
• behavior model
• simultaneous covariance structure analysis

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tomoko Mori

Tomoko Mori is a doctoral student in the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences at the University of Tokyo. She is also working for National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan as a research associate. She has master’s degree of engineering and has worked for private think tanks as a consultant in the field of waste management and material cycle. Her past researches are about evaluation of learning effects for youth and ESD program design.

Tomohiro Tasaki

Tomohiro Tasaki is the head of the Sustainable Material Cycle Systems Section, Center for Material Cycles and Waste Management Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan. He is also a visiting professor of the University of Tokyo. His academic background are systems engineering and environmental policy science and his studies cover waste management and sustainability science including policy evaluation of recycling acts, modelling of material flows and stocks, development of sustainable development indicators, and sustainable consumption and lifestyles.