Undergraduate Students’ Pro-Environmental Behavior in Daily Practice

Abstract

Pro-environmental behavior is an individual action as a manifestation of one’s responsibility to create a sustainable environment. University students as one of the agent of change can adopt pro-environmental behaviors concept, even through simple things to do on daily activities such as ride a bicycle or walk for short distance, reuse the shopping bags, separate waste, learn about environmental issues etc. Many studies have examined pro-environmental behavior from various approaches. However, the study about university students’ pro-environmental behavior is lacking. The aim of this paper is to examine the undergraduate students’ pro-environmental behaviors level. We surveyed 364 first year undergraduate students from a state university in Semarang. The survey included six aspects of pro-environmental behavior in daily practice which include energy conservation, mobility and transportation, waste avoidance, recycling, consumerism, and vicarious behaviors toward conservation. Findings of this study showed the level of pro-environmental behavior of first year undergraduate students is medium. Recommendations for undergraduate students and future researchers are discussed.

Pro-Ecological Behavior of Students of the Wuls-SGGW Faculty of Economics

“…This is not only a problem for Polish students, a similarly low social activity was observed in Hungary [Szerényi et al 2009, Szerényi et al 2011], a country with a similar history over the past few decades, as well as Turkey [Budak et al 2005]. Nevertheless, it raises concerns about the respondents' future attitudes and actions, when they become burdened with the role of leaders responsible for changes and decisions concerning the whole society [Widiaswati, Sawitri 2018].…”

“…In it, t is possible to find studies based on much larger samples using experimental, comparative, and statistical methods, also with regard to education and shaping pro-ecological behavior. These studies concern, among others, students of the USA [Emanuel, Adams 2011], Hungary [Szerényi et al 2009, Szerényi et al 2011], Romania [Crumpei et al 2014, Boca, Saraçlı 2019], Turkey [Budak et al 2005, Südaş, Özeltürkay 2014, but also more exotic countries such as Thailand [Janmaimool, Khajohnmanee 2019], Indonesia [Widiaswati, Sawitri 2018], Malaysia [Tan, Lau 2009] or China [Fu et al 2018], where the authors not only focused on students but the perspective of the entire university, including lecturers and administrative staff. Some studies are transnational, examples of which are works of María Azucena Vicente-Molina et al [Molina et al 2013], comparing students from developed and developing countries (the USA, Spain, Mexico, Brazil) or Ecem Tezel et al [Tezel et al 2018], about European, Turkish and Middle Eastern students studying in Istanbul.…”

Pro‐environmental practice among young population: A scoping review

“…A study findings reveled that six areas of pro-environmental behavior were surveyed, including energy saving, mobility and transportation, waste avoidance, recycling, consumerism, and teenagers' indirect conservation behavior (Dewi & Dian, 2018) Particularly, the young people mentioned include the subject in the academic curricula (Ogando, 2022) Parents have an impact on their children's and young people's environmental beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors through social influence mechanisms. Compared to younger generations, elder generations are more concerned about the environment and committed to taking environmental action.…”

“…A study findings reveled that six areas of pro‐environmental behavior were surveyed, including energy saving, mobility and transportation, waste avoidance, recycling, consumerism, and teenagers' indirect conservation behavior (Dewi & Dian, 2018) Particularly, the young people mentioned include the subject in the academic curricula (Ogando, 2022)…”

Participatory Environmentally Friendly Message Design: Influence of Message Features and User Characteristics

“…Undergraduate students were recruited for the study because they are potential green purchasers and a target group for pro-environmental education. They are the lead to behave environmental friendly, adopt environmentally responsible attitudes, create a sustainable environment, and combat environmental problems in the future [34]. Their responses would provide the information necessary to develop effective environmentally friendly message through participatory design approach.…”