Background: The problem of increasing amounts of food packaging waste especially in Germany leads to the challenge of how to minor waste by using no packaging in order to listen to environmental-conscious generation y consumers. This is why retailers need to understand the factors impacting the purchase intention and thus, need to act in higher extend in terms of a preventive sustainable approach. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the purchase intention of German generation y consumers towards packaging-free products. An extended Theory of Planned Behavior forms the theoretical foundation to investigate which factors are influencing the purchase intention the most. In addition to the original TPB factors attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control, the research model was extended by two new factors, namely environmental concern and barriers. Method: Through an explanatory research method, the data was collected in a quantitative online survey based on a sample of 422 respondents. In order to investigate the relationships among the factors and to further support or reject the study’s hypothesis, the data was analyzedby using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and simple and multiple regression. Finally, to determine differences among groups additional tests have been conducted. Conclusion: The findings of this study revealed new insights about predictors of the purchaseintention: German consumers’ intention is mainly impacted by their attitude, followed by thefactor barriers, and perceived behavioral control, whereas subjective norms do not. Further, the other newly added factor environmental concern indirectly impacts the purchase intention through attitude. Moreover, the importance of including new added factors to the original TPB model is shown as the extended TPB model has improved its power in explaining German generation y’s purchase intention towards packaging free. By that, the respondents of this studyare highly environmental concerned and overall intent to purchase packaging-free products in mainstream grocery stores, oats and milk respectively. This study’s results provide valuable insights for marketers of German mainstream grocery stores who are interested in selectively integrating packaging-free shopping to their stores.

With society's growing concern of the environmental impact that consumerism has today, consumers are more aware than ever of how their consumption habits affect their surroundings. This study is based on the consumer's journey of choosing products based on their environmental impact and the complications of it. The study will examine a subsection of Greenwashing, called Executional Greenwashing, that is used to subconsciously communicate messages about greenery towards the consumer, inferring their decision making. The goal of the research is to provide an understanding of how consumers react to Fast-Moving Consumer Goods advertisements containing Executional Greenwashing elements and what factors influence their reaction. The study uses primary and secondary data together with conducted interviews to examine how the use of Executional Greenwashing affects consumers' emotions towards advertisements containing these elements. The findings reveal how knowledge and expertise are the main factors to influence how consumers react to Executionally Greenwashed advertisement. The study also provides a conceptual model based on the findings to explain what emotions are affected in consumers. Consumers and researchers can use these findings to gain a further understanding of the effects of Executional Greenwashing and continue upon this research to achieve a complete understanding.

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In 2016, it is no longer possible to deny the existence of global warming and its harmful effects on our planet and the environment. Not only experts, but also consumers, have become increasingly concerned about the environment. This increased awareness and concern has increased consumers’ interest in purchasing environmentally friendly food products, and has caused companies to focus on programs intent on reducing their environmental impact and helping the environment. Companies have introduced more environmentally friendly food products, accessible on a large scale, and have changed their communication to focus more on green products and green product attributes. Scandinavian countries have some of the largest numbers of organic food consumers in Europe and the world, with the Swedish organic food industry measuring the highest growth rate in organic food sales in 2015. Therefore, this study focuses on the Swedish green food industry. A major way for companies to make consumers aware of their available environmentally friendly food products is through green advertising. An increasingly frequent problem, however, is that consumers tend to distrust these green ads. They have knowledge of green washing practices and misleading information in green advertising. In this thesis, the relationships between green consumerism, green washing and green advertising skepticism were investigated. The potential relationship between demographic factors such as gender, age, income and level and area of study, and green advertising skepticism were tested as well. A research model with three main hypotheses was used in this thesis. The results showed a significant relationship between green consumerism and green advertising skepticism when green washing was a moderator. There was also a significant negative relationship between attitude towards green products and green advertising skepticism and a positive relationship between environmental concern and green advertising skepticism. There existed no significant relationship between the tested demographic factors and green advertising skepticism in the Swedish green food industry.

No description available.

The purpose of this study is to examine Tukish pre-service teachers perceptions about global versus local environmental issues and determine gender and major effect on their perceptions of global and local environmental issues. The information will be collected from Elementary Education pre-service teachers from Middle East Technical University. Their concerns and attitudes toward 9 global and 5 local environmental issues will be measured by using a survey questionnaire. The questionnaire has been adopted from the one originally used by Duan and Fortner (2005). The local issues were selected according to report about the major environmental problems declared by the Ministry of Environment and Foresty of Turkey and the global issues were kept same as the original questionnaire. The results of the study were analysed by means of descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed that elementary education pre-service teachers mostly gave more importance to global environmental issues / females had higher attitudes and concerns about environmental issues than males and Early Childhood Education students have higher attitudes and concerns for environmental issues than students from departments of Elementary Science Education and Elementary Mathematics Education. In the stage of preparing environmental education courses as a must course for the faculty of education students in Turkey, the outcome of the study is expected to propose an insight for environmental education for the future teachers.

Abstract This study analyses environmental concern in the Komi Republic from the contextual perspective. The main research data consisted of thematic interviews of industrial workers (n =  114), teachers (n =  30), administration staff (n =  33) in the towns of Usinsk and Vorkuta in the Northern Komi Republic. In addition, the in-depth thematic interviews of state administrators, scientists and NGO actors are analysed as well as the survey study conducted in several regions in the republic. As a broad theoretical frame the study uses the context model, in which environmental concern in everyday life is interpreted at five closely connected levels. The study consists of four previously published articles, one submitted manuscript and a concluding chapter. As the major theoretical and methodological idea the study presents two different environments: a life-world of the individual, where environmental changes are perceived and experienced in a framework of everyday life, and secondly, global environmentalism’s Environment, which is nowadays in Western discourses viewed as a globe. This study focuses on the life-world perspective, and asks how these two environments communicate with each other in the particular contexts of the Komi Republic. In general, environmental issues hold a low profile compared with other social problems in the Komi Republic. However, the citizens of the Komi Republic are concerned about so-called ’brown‘ environmental issues; that is issues of pollution and waste disposal in their immediate environs. The public’s environmental concerns are mostly about ’ecological risks‘ – the health and well-being implications of environmental degradation. Environmental problems are regarded as part societal transformation. This ’brown‘ environmentalism is understandable in Russia since approximately 60 million Russians now live in zones with adverse environmental situations. Green or global issues are not much discussed among the public of Russia. The findings stress that engagement with the surrounding environment, local conditions and socio-political contexts shape perceptions and framings of environmental change. Local perceptions and local knowledge are still a crucial basis for concern. / Tiivistelmä Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan ympäristötietoisuutta ja -huolta Komin tasavallassa kontekstuaalisesta näkökulmasta. Tärkein osa tutkimusaineistosta koostuu teollisuustyöntekijöiden (n =  114), opettajien (n =  30) ja yritys- ja julkisen hallinnon edustajien (n =  33) teemahaastatteluista Usinskin ja Vorkutan kaupungeissa tasavallan pohjoisosassa. Lisäksi työssä on analysoitu valtion virkamiesten, tutkijoiden sekä kansalaisjärjestöjen toimijoiden teemahaastatteluja sekä tasavallan eri alueilla tehdyn kyselytutkimuksen tuloksia. Tutkimuksessa hyödynnetään kontekstimallia, jossa ympäristötietoisuutta tarkastellaan viiden toisiinsa limittyvän tason kautta. Tutkimus koostuu neljästä julkaistusta artikkelista, yhdestä käsikirjoituksesta ja yhteenvetoluvusta. Tutkimuksen tärkein teoreettinen ja metodologinen idea jakaa ympäristön kahtia: ensimmäinen on yksilön elämismaailma, missä ympäristömuutokset havaitaan ja koetaan arkielämän kehystäminä, ja toinen, globaalin environmentalismin ympäristö, minkä nykyisin ajatellaan käsittävän koko maapallon. Tämä tutkimus keskittyy elämismaailmanäkökulmaan ja kysyy, kuinka nämä kaksi ympäristöä kommunikoivat toistensa kanssa eri konteksteissa. Yleisellä tasolla tarkasteltuna ympäristöongelmat ovat taustalla kansalaisten elämässä verrattuna muihin sosiaalisiin ongelmiin. Komin tasavallan asukkaat ovat kuitenkin huolissaan niin kutsutuista ’ruskeista’ ympäristökysymyksistä eli lähinnä saastumiseen ja erilaisiin jätteisiin liittyvistä ongelmista. Kansalaisten ympäristöhuoli kytkeytyy ennen kaikkea ekologisiin riskeihin – ympäristön pilaantumisen terveydellisiin ja hyvinvointiin liittyviin seuraamuksiin. Näin ympäristöongelmat limittyvät muiden sosiaalisten ongelmien kanssa ja koetaan osaksi yhteiskunnallista muutosta. Tämä ’ruskea’ ympäristöhuoli on ymmärrettävä ilmiö Venäjällä, missä noin 60 miljoonaa kansalaista asuu terveydelle haitallisissa ympäristöoloissa. ’Vihreitä’ tai globaaleja ympäristökysymyksiä ei juurikaan käsitellä Venäjän julkisessa keskustelussa. Tutkimuksen tulokset painottavat lähiympäristöön sitoutumisen ja elämismaailman merkitystä ympäristömuutosten havainnoinnissa sekä yhteiskunnallisten kontekstien vaikutusta ympäristökysymysten kehystämiseen. Paikallisella havainnoinnilla ja tiedolla on edelleen suuri rooli ympäristötietoisuuden muotoutumisessa.

Avec l’actuelle crise de la biodiversité, nos modes de vie de plus en plus urbains diminuent nos opportunités d’expériences de nature. Cependant, une relation intime avec la nature a de nombreux bénéfices, que ce soit pour le bien être individuel, la santé ou la restauration de l’attention, mais aussi les enjeux environnementaux. De nombreuses recherches ont exploré le degré auquel les citoyens se sentent faire partie du monde naturel, et se sont ainsi intéressées plus récemment à l’importance de reconnecter les citoyens – en particulier urbains – à la nature et aux enjeux de conservation, à travers les expériences de nature. Au travers de ce travail de thèse, nous avons exploré si les zoos pourraient participer à une telle reconnexion. Pour cela, une approche interdisciplinaire a été adoptée, avec des concepts et méthodes issus de la biologie de la conservation, de l’anthropologie, de la psychologie sociale et psychologie de la conservation, de la psycho acoustique, et de l’économie environnementale. Nous avons tout d’abord exploré si les zoos étaient considérés comme des espaces de nature. Puis, nous nous sommes intéressés plus particulièrement à la perception de la nature dans le zoo, d’un point de vue visuel et sonore. L’analyse comparative entre des visiteurs de zoos et des utilisateurs de parcs urbains nous a permis d’explorer l’impact de la visite au zoo sur le sentiment de connexion à la nature et sur les attitudes envers la conservation. Enfin, nous nous sommes intéressés aux comportements pro-conservation au zoo, au travers de l’analyse du choix de l’animal et du montant de la donation chez des participants à un programme de parrainage d’un animal au zoo.Ce travail démontre que même si le zoo est considéré et utilisé comme un espace de nature, il n’affecte pas le sentiment de connexion à la nature des visiteurs. Cependant, en comparaison à une visite d’un parc urbain, la visite au zoo a le potentiel de promouvoir les attitudes envers la conservation, au travers de la connexion à la nature. De plus, même au zoo, si l’accent est largement mis sur les espèces captives, exotiques, les visiteurs semblent aussi percevoir la biodiversité urbaine. Néanmoins, à l’inverse des attitudes pour la conservation, il reste incertain que le zoo promulgue les comportements pro-conservation. Pour conclure, ce projet de thèse a mis en évidence que dans le processus de reconnexion des citoyens à la nature et aux enjeux de conservation, les zoos offrent indubitablement un type d’expérience de nature aux citoyens urbains, qui devrait être pris en considération au même titre que d’autres types d’expériences de nature (e.g. forêts), notamment puisque les zoos sont des institutions qui accueillent une très large et diverse proportion de la population dans le monde. / With the on-going biodiversity crisis, growing urban lifestyles decrease opportunities to experience nature. However, an intimate relationship with nature has various benefits, for individual well-being, health or attention restoration, but also for environmental issues. Much research effort explored the extent to which people feel being part of the natural world, and thus focused more recently on the importance of reconnecting people – especially urban dwellers – with nature and conservation issues, through experiences of nature. In this work, we investigated whether zoos could participate in such reconnection. We used an interdisciplinary approach, with concepts and methods from conservation biology, anthropology, social and conservation psychology, psychoacoustics, and ecological economics. We first explored whether zoos were considered as natural places. Then, we looked more closely at people’s perception of nature at the zoo, from both visual and auditory perspectives. Comparative analysis between zoo visitors and urban park users allowed us investigate the impact of the zoo visit on sense of connection to nature and conservation attitudes. Finally, we focused on pro-conservation behaviors at the zoo through the analysis of animal choice and amount of donations of participants to an animal adoption program at the zoo. This work demonstrates that although the zoo is considered and used as a natural place, it does not affect sense of connection to nature. However, compared to a visit to an urban green park, the zoo visit has the potential to raise conservation attitudes, through connectedness to nature. Additionally, despite an emphasis on captive, exotic species at the zoo, visitors also seemed to perceive urban wildlife. Nevertheless, unlike conservation attitudes, the contribution of the zoo in enhancing pro-conservation behaviors remains doubtful. To conclude, this PhD project highlighted that in the process of reconnecting people to nature and conservation issues, zoos undoubtedly provide one type of experience of nature to urban dwellers, that should be considered along with other types of experiences of nature, e.g. woodlands, especially because zoos are institutions that target a very large and diverse part of the population, worldwide.

El valor percibido y la preocupación ambiental de los consumidores hacia los productos orgánicos ha cambiado de manera favorable en la última década. Se ve la oportunidad de analizar la categoría respecto a la intención de compra de los consumidores. En este sentido, la presente investigación va analizar la relación de la intención de compra respecto al valor percibido y la preocupación ambiental de la categoría. Por lo que se tomarán diferentes investigaciones de los autores respecto a las variables, dimensiones para llegar a analizar distintos estudios y encontrar el vínculo entre ellas. Asimismo, se analizan 3 variables, se plantean diferentes hipótesis que ayudaran con la investigación y para saber si los objetivos planteados se cumplen. / The perceived value and environmental concern of consumers towards organic products has changed favorably in the last decade. There is an opportunity to analyze the category with respect to the purchase intention of consumers. In this sense, this research will analyze the relationship of purchase intention with respect to the perceived value and environmental concern of the category. Therefore, different investigations of the authors regarding the variables and dimensions will be taken to analyze different studies and find the link between them. Likewise, 3 variables are analyzed, different hypotheses are proposed that will help with the investigation and to know if the objectives set are met. / Trabajo de investigación

Threat perception related to environmental issues such as air pollution may be a determinant of pro-environmental behaviors. Among the potential threats of air pollution, include the perceived impacts on the psychological, social, and economic wellbeing of a community. Because of rapid increases in population growth, urbanization, and the mountainous landscapes, the American West is extremely susceptible to the adverse impacts of air pollution. A secondary data analysis was conducted using data from the Air Quality Perception Survey conducted in Cache County, Utah. The survey focused on the public perception of air pollution in Cache County and perceived impact on personal and community life. From a sample of 289 returned surveys, the data were examined to determine the possible link between threat perception and the decision to engage in specific pro-environmental and avoidance behaviors. The analysis found that threat perception predicted some pro-environmental and avoidance behaviors.