Pro-Environmental Awareness and Behaviors on Campus: Evidence from Tianjin, China

Abstract

China has promoted green campuses for decades. To better explore the current extent of pro-environmental awareness and behaviors of types of stakeholders (student, faculty members, and administrators) on campus, this study investigated the relationship between pro-environmental awareness and pro-environmental behaviors along with the influences of motivators, barriers, and culture (face (reputation) and group pressure). A questionnaire survey was conducted with a sample of the three types of stakeholders at Tianjin University, one of the largest academic institutions and the earliest to implement green campus development initiatives in China. Structural equation modeling tested a causal model of awareness, behaviors, and other explanatory variables. The results found that pro-environmental behaviors were more likely than awareness and the respondents engaged in private more than in public proenvironmental behaviors. Chinese social and cultural factors influenced proenvironmental behavior, particularly among the administrators, which informs our understanding of the reasons for the awareness-behavior gap. China's universities focus on eco-technology and energy management rather than on dissemination and publicity. The results suggest that advancing a pro-environmental cultural atmosphere and a consistent sustainability policy might significantly foster pro-environmental behaviors on university campuses.

Residents’ Green Purchasing Intentions in a Developing-Country Context: Integrating PLS-SEM and MGA Methods

“…The Tianjin Municipal Government has issued many documents in recent years in order to promote diverse and affordable green products and to encourage citizens to choose and purchase green energy-saving products. However, Tianjin is still in the early stages of green development, having a weak consciousness of green consumption, a mismatch between supply and demand of green products, and a lack of green lifestyles [8][9][10][11]. The study of Tianjin residents' purchasing intentions is helpful to understand the overall green purchasing behaviour of people in China's developed provinces and to provide a demonstration for the country.…”

A Study on Correlations between Computer-Aided Instructions Integrated Environmental Education and Students’ Learning Outcome and Environmental Literacy

“…Referring to Fu et al (2017), environmental literacy contains the following dimensions in this study.…”

Romanian Students’ Environment-Related Routines during COVID-19 Home Confinement: Water, Plastic, and Paper Consumption

“…Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in 2020, an event that confined to their homes more than 1.37 billion students of all levels of education, according to the statistics provided by UNESCO [9], studies on students' environment-related behaviors dealt with either their behavior on campus [10], at college or as part of their generation, in the household, from multiple angles-as part of a lifestyle [11], as a consciously adopted choice [12], as perceptions related to sustainability actions in green universities [10], up to behaviors and attitudes on campus [13,14]. Universities also attracted their share of attention, mainly in the form of calls to action under the framework of the United Nations Environment Programme for going green and joining the Green Universities Network (UNEP) [15], or as practices developed on regional or local levels [10,[16][17][18].…”