Tackling climate change and other associated environmental problems has become a significant global issue. In order to tackle these challenges governments have introduced policy frameworks, legislation and laws to help mitigate their effects. The Scottish Government have invested in numerous programmes and initiatives to create and enhance a low carbon rural economy, and in order to do so successfully understanding behaviour is a vital component in achieving the aims of such policies and legislation. Rural businesses can play an important role in encouraging the uptake of pro-environmental behaviour and energy saving practices. However individuals within rural SME’s (small and medium sized enterprises) often encounter barriers which may prevent reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other environmental objectives from being achieved. Therefore it is important to understand the influences associated with pro-environmental behaviour within the workplace, specific to the rural economy. This thesis aims to investigate the role of the physical, social and individual context in influencing individuals’ workplace pro-environmental behaviour. The thesis also aims to research the barriers, facilitators and motivations individuals experience during decision-making and action taken relating to issues such as recycling, waste management, energy efficiency, transport and procurement. Different employee levels within a variety of rural tourism businesses have been studied (e.g. employees, management, and business owners) utilising a mixed methodology consisting of focus groups and a questionnaire survey in order to enhance and validate the research. By doing so this study has managed to increase understanding of the views of employees, managers and business owners, who are crucial to the uptake of pro-environmental behaviour within the rural economy. A range of antecedents were identified from existing literature as having potential effects on pro-environmental behaviour, therefore a variety of these were thoroughly investigated. The results of the studies carried out herein show the importance of understanding workplace pro-environmental behaviour from the perspective of different contexts (physical, social and individual). With respect to the physical context, antecedents influencing individuals’ workplace pro-environmental behaviours include building infrastructure, business size and building location. Individuals expressed their businesses inability to be energy efficient due to poor building infrastructure, e.g. operating from an old rural building with inefficient roof and wall insulation, to no double glazing due to being in a listed building, thus letting heat escape. Furthermore, individuals discussed renting premises for their business, therefore have no control over structural decisions which affect energy efficiency. Business size was also mentioned as an important influence of behaviour in relation to the physical context, e.g. smaller businesses produce less turnover, and therefore are not in a financial position to upgrade heating systems, or utilise clean efficient technologies and materials which are perceived to be more expensive. With regard to business location, a high proportion of participants highlighted this as a barrier to undertaking pro-environmental behaviour, e.g. lack of public transport, recycling facilities and pick-ups for particular business materials, as well as not being able to procure goods for the workplace locally due to lack of availability. In terms of the social context, antecedents influencing individuals’ workplace pro-environmental behaviour included social norms. Individuals cite being influenced by professional relationships, e.g. neighbouring businesses, colleagues, customers and higher management (industry compliance), in addition to personal social relationships e.g. friends and family. Many business owners stated feeling responsible to behave pro-environmentally and were motivated to try and set a good example to other members of their workforce in order to increase participation and awareness. The study also highlighted the importance to strengthen an individual’s identification with their workplace, as results illustrated the more an individual strongly identified with their work, the more likely they were to engage in pro-environmental behaviour. Lastly with respect to the individual context, this refers to one’s personal circumstances, outlooks and attitudes specific to them as an individual. The thesis provides support that environmental identity and level of environmental activity (contingent to the workplace) were both influences of workplace pro-environmental behaviour. The study’s findings highlighted the more an individual strongly identified with the environment, the more likely they were to engage in pro-environmental behaviour at work. With respect to the level of environmental activity as an influence of workplace behaviour, results provided evidence that the more an individual was active (e.g. in green marketing, joining green schemes, holding/attending environmental meetings etc.), the more likely they were to engage in pro-environmental behaviour at work, thus illustrating the value of these practices. In conclusion, results from this research demonstrate the relationship between the physical, social and individual context when investigating the influences of workplace pro-environmental behaviour, and furthermore identify individuals’ personal motivations, barriers and facilitators. By doing so the thesis has been able to highlight what actions and procedures could potentially be implemented to increase sustainable tourism business practices in the transition to a low carbon rural economy. It is important to recognise individuals will perceive different barriers and retain motivations personal to them, therefore when business owners apply new environmental initiatives and goals, employees’ individual needs must be acknowledged to facilitate greater engagement. Workplace pro-environmental behaviour is complex and fairly under researched in comparison to investigating home-based pro-environmental behaviours. Therefore this study has added to the body of literature by highlighting the importance of different contexts (physical, social and individual) and has increased the understanding of what influences workplace pro-environmental behaviour specific to the rural tourism industry, which is vital to Scotland’s economy.

With the aim to reduce the effects of anthropocentric climate change and achieve a more sustainable future, promotion of sustainable individual behaviour is just as essential as driving political and economic change. As social media are experiencing growth in popularity, online communities in which influencers act as opinion leaders are a promising tool to influence behaviour. The objective of this paper was to examine the role of individuals’ pre-existing value structures and the effectiveness of encouraging pro-environmental behaviour amongst the millennial generation on Instagram. The study design is based on the extended version of goal-frame theory, The Integrated Framework for Encouraging Pro-environmental Behaviour.An experiment survey has been developed to measure current pro-environmental behaviour, value structure and goal-frame, test preferred Instagram posts, and measure intentions to act pro-environmentally in the future. Survey respondents were randomly assigned to a control group, which was not shown any Instagram posts. The experiment tested whether the provision of Instagram posts, which are framed in line with one’s goal-frame, creates a more effective message subsequently leading to an increase in future intentions to act pro-environmentally. The results of the analyses indicated that framing of an Instagram post based on pre-existing goal-frames does create a more effective message but does not lead to an increase in future intentions to act pro-environmentally. The differences in intentions to start acting pro-environmentally were not significantly different between the experiment and control group.Further analysis revealed that the strongest predictor to increase intentions to act in line with the environment is a combination of high accessibility to a normative goal-frame (biospheric and altruistic values), low accessibility to a gain goal-frame (egoistic values) and university education. Additionally, it was detected that females are more likely to engage in pro-environmental behaviour, to have higher intentions to adjust their lifestyle as well as accessibility to a normative goal-frame. Implications of this study can be applied to future research as well as help organizations and governments to develop more targeted sustainable consumption campaign and policies.

The state of the natural environment is a topic of increasing concern, with climate change, loss of biodiversity, and diminishing natural resources all posing eminent threats to the well-being of the planet and its inhabitants. Much of this environmental degradation is caused by human behaviour that can be changed. Psychologists have realised their role in understanding and influencing pro-environmental behaviours to help (see Chapter 1). Most psychological research of environmental behaviour has focused on the individual person as the unit of analysis. While this has been helpful, less attention has been given to how group memberships, and the social influences these create, affect environmental behaviour. Because environmental behaviour often occurs within a social context, understanding the social element may be critically important to promoting environmentally sustainable behaviour (see Chapter 2). Using the social identity approach, this research investigates how various aspects of social group membership interact with individual attributes to influence environmental behaviour. Three related strands of research explore this issue (see Chapter 3 for an overview). In Chapter 4, two studies (Studies 1 and 2) examined how group feedback in the form of social comparisons affect individual behaviour. Based on social identity theory, it was predicted that positive social comparisons would lead to more positive behaviour, and less positive comparisons to less positive behaviour, especially among individuals who identified strongly with the target ingroup. Results from both studies found some support for these hypotheses on certain (but not all) behavioural dependent measures, both at the time of manipulation and one week later. This supports the notion that individual social identification strength can moderate behavioural response to group-level feedback on environmental topics. In Chapter 5, Study 3 considered how interaction within groups via discussion might induce group norms about environmental behaviour that over-ride the effects of intergroup comparisons. A design similar to Study 1 was used, with the addition of a small-group discussion following the feedback manipulation. Discussion content was hypothesised to predict environmental behaviour, with the feedback manipulation having less impact than in Study 1. Results found that the more participants discussed environmental behaviours, the more they engaged in them one week later. This effect was independent of pre-existing environmental values, suggesting that the effects of group interaction were not merely a reflection of existing individual orientations. Following the discussion, values were also found to be very strong predictors of behaviour, a result not found in Study 1, suggesting that group interaction not only shapes individual behaviour but also reduces the classic value-action gap. Together, these findings point to the powerful role that intra-group interaction can play in forming norms of environmental behaviour and shaping individual responses. In Chapter 6, two studies (Studies 4 and 5) explored how comparisons within a group over time (i.e., intra-group comparisons) may function differently to comparisons between groups (i.e., inter-group comparisons), which were explored in Chapter 4. Based on the findings in Chapter 4, positive intergroup comparisons were predicted to result in more positive individual intentions, whereas negative intergroup comparisons were expected to result in reduced intentions. With respect to intra-group comparisons, however, the opposite pattern of effects was predicted. The results of Study 4 did not support these hypotheses. However, feedback from participants suggested that the experimental design may have produced reactance. To address this, Study 5 made use of a revised design, and the results of this study indicated support for the hypotheses. Importantly, in addition to negative and positive comparisons having opposing effects depending on whether these were intra- or inter-group, the processes behind these effects also differed. The effects of intra-group comparisons were mediated by shared responsibility whereas the effects of intergroup comparisons were mediated by environmental value centrality. These results are integrated and discussed in Chapter 7. The recurring theme of these results is that group-level feedback can interact with individual-level variables in subtle but powerful ways, leading to differing outcomes of environmental behaviour. These findings highlight the socially imbedded nature of individual environmental actions, and suggest new avenues for theoretical and practical work in the environmental domain. In particular, on the basis of the studies included in this thesis it is recommended that psychologists who are interested in understanding and changing individual environmental behaviour should incorporate an understanding of intra- and inter-group processes into their theorising and future research.

Scholars who study grassroots innovations argue that small-scale community-led urban projects can serve as catalysts accelerating sustainability, by spreading their techniques and practices into a broader society. This thesis explores the claim by investigating influences of two Swedish eco-villages through two spheres: individual and whole eco-village project basis-influence. The study finds that living in the eco-villages helped the residents to reinforce their environmental behaviours. Also both projects had an indirect impact on the housing companies and the municipalities in light of knowledge building and inspiration. However, there was little evidence that ideas and techniques from the eco-villages were adopted by the higher institutional levels. The findings indicate a need for linking grassroots urban projects to municipal programmes.

Landfills in British Columbia are reaching capacity; this has sparked renewed efforts to curb the output of household waste. Extending previous quantitative studies, I use a qualitative grounded theory approach to explore what influences the perception of waste and activates the intention to recycle and compost. Participants from Ucluelet, British Columbia, accumulated their refuse, recyclables, and compost during a four week period; simultaneously, I interviewed them about the meanings and feelings they associated with the process. My results suggest that participants attitudes about waste are strongly influenced by what they see. Because garbage is regularly hauled away and dumped out of sight, participants were relatively unaware of how much they produce and its environmental impact. Increasing awareness appears to be a key factor in changing waste diversion intentions; incorporating small pro-environmental changes may lead to further changes. This reaffirms previous findings that adopting one environmental behaviour can empower further change.

Landfills in British Columbia are reaching capacity; this has sparked renewed efforts to curb the output of household waste. Extending previous quantitative studies, I use a qualitative grounded theory approach to explore what influences the perception of waste and activates the intention to recycle and compost. Participants from Ucluelet, British Columbia, accumulated their refuse, recyclables, and compost during a four week period; simultaneously, I interviewed them about the meanings and feelings they associated with the process. My results suggest that participants attitudes about waste are strongly influenced by what they see. Because garbage is regularly hauled away and dumped out of sight, participants were relatively unaware of how much they produce and its environmental impact. Increasing awareness appears to be a key factor in changing waste diversion intentions; incorporating small pro-environmental changes may lead to further changes. This reaffirms previous findings that adopting one environmental behaviour can empower further change.

Since the end of apartheid South Africa has been rebuilding the country with the aim to create a society based on equality. In the rebuilding and formation of a new constitution the aim to build a society based on the principles of sustainable development is evident. Education is an important part in the rebuilding. This thesis is a case study of Nxuba Senior Primary School in the traditionally black township Lingelihle in Eastern Cape. The objective is to analyse how the school management can engage in environmental issues and take the role of promoting values, attitudes and lifestyles for sustainable development to its learners. There are three research questions: What environmental related projects are being done at Nxuba Senior Primary School? How do the school management motivate the projects? How do these projects affect the learners’ environmental awareness and ability to act pro-environmentally? The thesis is based on a field study where school documents were analysed and in-depth interviews with the school management and a questionnaire among the learners were carried out. The theoretical framework that is presented discusses what factors influence sustainable behaviour and what conditions foster pro-environmental behaviour among children. Four environmental related projects are identified at the school; a recycling project, an environmental awareness club, a vegetable garden as well as an indigenous garden and greening of the school. Based on the questionnaire the learners’ attitudes towards environmental issues and their pro-environmental behaviour are examined. In the discussion the motives behind the projects concluded to be a combination of environmental and social motives. The projects are put in relation to Stern’s four factors influencing pro-environmental behaviour and Chawla and Cushing Flanders’ six conditions for fostering pro-environmental behaviour among children.

Using the action-based model of dissonance (Harmon-Jones, Amodio, & Harmon-Jones, 2009) and self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2008) as theoretical frameworks, this thesis sought to explain the motivational processes underlying the environmental belief-action gap. The thesis examined why and how people resolve inconsistencies between their favourable attitudes toward environmental protection and their environmentally harmful behaviour. I hypothesized that accounting for individual differences in autonomous and controlled distal motives for effective and unconflicted action would clarify why attitude-behaviour inconsistencies are uncomfortable and explain how people compensate for them. I carried out 3 sets of studies to test the proposed hierarchical action-based model of inconsistency compensation in the environmental domain (HABICE). The objective of the first set of 3 studies was to test hypotheses about the role of individual differences in global and contextual motivation on dissonance arousal, in response to native attitude-behaviour inconsistencies encountered across and within important life domains. The second set of 3 studies tested hypotheses about the role of individual differences in contextual motivation toward the environment on the use and choice of strategies to compensate for a recent native inconsistency in the environmental domain. Finally, the goal of the final study was to test hypotheses about the moderating effect of social factors that direct attention to public (ego-invested) versus private (authentic) aspects of the self during the perception of inconsistencies on motivation and intentions to revise pro-global warming mitigation attitudes. The results of the 7 studies (total N = 2,209) supported the main predictions of the HABICE. The cumulative evidence supported the existence of two motivational orientations operating during inconsistency compensation processes. The autonomous motivational orientation, which embodies action tendencies to facilitate organismic integration via authentic regulation, motivated people to compensate for attitude-behaviour inconsistencies to restore the integrity of authentic self-structures. As a result, autonomous motivation toward the environment led people to reduce dissonance and to compensate for perceived inconsistencies by bringing their behaviour in line with self-relevant attitudes. The controlled motivational orientation, which embodies action tendencies to facilitate instrumental outcomes via contingent regulation, motivated people to compensate for attitude-behaviour inconsistencies to protect ego-invested self-structures by avoiding the aversive consequences of their counter-environmental actions. When inconsistencies aroused dissonance, controlled motivation predicted the use of overt behavioural strategies, for example enacting a compensatory pro-environmental action, to reduce dissonance. However, when inconsistencies did not arouse dissonance or there were barriers to behaviour change, controlled motivation predicted the use of cognitive strategies, for example revising or distorting pro-environmental attitudes, to minimize the inconsistency. Consequently, autonomous compensation processes predicted relatively infrequent attitude-behaviour inconsistencies in the environmental domain while controlled compensation processes predicted relatively frequent inconsistencies. The results imply that controlled motivation toward the environment may be driving the environmental belief-action gap, but that finding ways to promote autonomous motivation toward the environment in the general population has the potential to alleviate the gap.

Considering current urban challenges within the United States, the stewardship of massive, unsustainable living and consumption, collaborative cohousing communities appear to hold substantial potential as agents of change delivering sustainable-oriented lifestyles. This research examines the internal drives that intervene in adopting environmentally friendly habits and explores how they are facilitated inside this type of residence. In order to observe the benefits and limitations of this type of degrowth-oriented housing, this study covers the transformative learning experiences within cohousing residents through the conduction of semi-structured interviews as the primary method. For this research, two cohousing communities have been selected in the states of Vermont and Iowa.  Throughout the study, different drives associated with the attainment of sustainable environments have been identified. Among them, we find drives connected to the built space and the social organisation of the communities. Emphasis is also given to the internal strategies by which these drives intervene in the materialisation of environmentally friendly lifestyles. The study points out those drives that deem cohousing a beneficial tool to challenge existing economic norms and social paradigms. This study can serve as the basis for further research exploring the possibilities of considering the depicted drives as guiding models for sustainable living among more traditional forms of housing.

Climate change is an enormous challenge which, if not addressed will have detrimental impacts across the globe. This problem is largely produced by human behaviour. Therefore, strategies aimed at influencing behaviour are necessary in addressing this issue. Governments are currently utilising informational campaigns, rewards, penalties, nudging and structural changes to influence pro-environmental behaviour. Although these methods are creating change, it is far from sufficient to address the massive and urgent issue of climate change. Therefore, alternative strategies should be considered. As such, this thesis aims to explore the effectiveness and the extent to which the Social Credit System, as it is being developed in China, can be considered an alternative strategy for producing pro-environmental behaviour. A framework to analyse and describe the SCS was developed by executing a literature review of key environmental behaviour models and intervention strategies aimed at producing pro-environmental behaviour. It concludes that the Social Credit System utilises a variety of methods similar to the behaviour models and interventions reviewed in this thesis, especially as far as rewards and punishments are concerned. However, surveillance stands out as a distinct means of intervention that is not utilised outside China to produce pro-environmental behaviour. The discussion suggests that this aspect of the system might be effective in contributing to address the challenge of climate change due to its coercive nature.