Environmental Impact and Pro-environmental Behavior: Correlations to Income and Environmental Concern

• In Event: 118 - Section on Economic Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 04. Consumption Theory

Abstract

Abstract: Switzerland, like many other countries, has set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Private households play a significant part in achieving these aims. Therefore, it is important to know which factors are related to emissions. So far, most studies have focused on income, household size
and other structural factors while neglecting the potential relevance of attitudinal variables such as environmental concern. Those studies that did examine environmental attitudes were mostly based on "intent-oriented" measures of pro-environmental behavior instead of actual environmental impacts. The present study brings these lines of research together by analyzing the relationship between emissions, income and environmental attitudes within a framework of multivariate analysis. Furthermore, three specific emissions domains – mobility, housing and food – are analyzed separately
and the results are compared to those based on a scale of pro-environmental behavior. All
analyses are based on data from a large representative general population survey, the Swiss Environmental Survey 2007 (n = 3,369), and a subsequent life cycle analysis. This study clearly indicates that next to income, environmental concern is an important predictor of GHG emissions, even when controlling for the effects of income. A very similar pattern of correlations was found for intent-oriented pro-environmental behavior.

Authors

• Andreas Diekmann, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich

• Heidi Bruderer Enzler, ETH Zurich