Different shades of green? Unpacking habitual and occasional pro-environmental behavior

By M. Lavelle, Henrike Rau, F. Fahy. 2015

116 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract This paper argues for a disaggregation of pro-environmental behavior into habitual and occasional behavior. The former captures routine everyday activities such as regularly buying organic food or habitually conserving water. The latter describes occasional or once-off activities such as installing insulation and purchasing energy-efficient household appliances. Drawing on a survey of 1500 households in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland that developed both behavioral and attitudinal indices to investigate household consumption, we group respondents according to their scoring on each index. Results show that the socio-demographic and attitudinal profiles of households that report habitual pro-environmental behavior differ significantly from those that engage in once-off actions. This clearly impacts on environmental and sustainability policy, most notably the financial incentivization of sustainable consumption. Moreover, significant social sustainability issues arise, with rewards for once-off activities disproportionately benefiting better-off households while those who engage in routine pro-environmental behavior tend to face higher costs.

Subfields: Building and Construction, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law, Marketing

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2096ff41f661f0b53565af02d75cf59d46459670

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Building and Construction

1. Martin Brown
2. G. Sonetti
3. Emanuele Naboni

In Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

1. Xianwei Liu
2. Martin Brown
3. Yang Zou
4. Jianping Wu
5. G. Sonetti
6. Emanuele Naboni

In Marketing

1. Xianwei Liu
2. Martin Brown
3. Yang Zou
4. Jianping Wu
5. G. Sonetti
6. Emanuele Naboni

Citations in the corpus

• About the Triggering of UN Sustainable Development Goals and Regenerative Sustainability in Higher Education (2019, methodology): “[74] show the heterogeneity and richness of ecological behaviors [73,75]: according to studies by Martinsson et al.”
• Factors Influencing Public-Sphere Pro-Environmental Behavior among Mongolian College Students: A Test of Value–Belief–Norm Theory (2018, background): “[60] divided pro-environmental behavior into chronic behavior and occasional behavior, and then MacDonald and She [61] categorized it into curtailing, political and efficiency behavior.”