Promoting Pro-Environmental Behaviors: A Challenge for Use of Life Cycle Thinking-Based Information

Information provision is one of the most conventional strategies for promoting pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs). Information has been provided in many types which include declarative, procedural, impactful and normative... [ view full abstract ]

Information provision is one of the most conventional strategies for promoting pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs). Information has been provided in many types which include declarative, procedural, impactful and normative information. Recently, there is an increasing trend in use of information based on a concept of life-cycle thinking (LCT) and it is mostly presented as in finished informative data, such as carbon footprint. In fact, the LCT concept has been widely applied in many environmental initiatives, but it has been rarely introduced to the public. This study aimed to make use of the LCT concept to foster PEBs by making people have more awareness of the effect chain of their behaviors on environmental problems. Two target behaviors, doing waste separation and selecting refill products, were used in this study. Two types of information were provided for each behavior, one of which was LCT-based information and another was normative information for doing waste separation and procedural information for selecting refill product. Three groups of respondents were set for each behavior, including two groups with information provided separately and one control group without information provision. A web-based survey was conducted in Bangkok and its vicinity in Thailand and 2,446 respondents were gained. Effects of information provision were evaluated in terms of attitude change and intention. Results show that effect of information on attitude change was positive, although its effect size varied depending on the baseline levels of attitude towards the target behaviors. Relatively high baseline level in attitude towards waste separation was not significantly enhanced by information provision while significant increase were detected in refill product selecting groups (p<0.005). Intentions to do or keep doing two target behaviors were significantly higher than the baseline practice (p<0.005); however, only for selecting refill product behavior the treatment groups had higher changes than the control group. Lastly, the average scores for helpfulness and new point gained from information provided indicate that LCT-based information was more helpful than its alternative types of information in both target behaviors and it could provide new information to the respondents, especially for the respondents in selecting refill product group.