Theoretical perspectives on proenvironmental behaviours

• Author: Mariela Pavalache-Ilie
• Position: Transilvania University of Brasov
• Pages: 61-74

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol.10 (59) No. 1 - 2017

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON PRO-

ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOURS

Mariela PAVALACHE-ILIE1

Abstract: The paper outlines a synthesis of the models (The rationalist

models, models based on Theory of Reasoned Action/ Theory of Planned

Behavior, prosocial models) and antecedents of pro-environmental

behaviors. The values models applicable for the study of pro-environmental

behaviours (Rokeach’s; Schwartz’s; Kollmus and Agyeman synthesis), are

presented afterwards, as the results of the studies which confirm the

predictive role of values when it comes to pro-environmental behaviour

Key words: models of pro-environmental behaviours, antecedents, values,

sustainable development.

1. Introduction

In order to increase everyday comfort, people have irrationally exploited the natural

resources, caused the extinction of numerous species of animals and plants, drastically

reduced the spread of old-growth forests; they have produced genetically modified

organisms in order to increase their nutrition sources, they have polluted the waters and

the air in order to build more and more sophisticated technological products.

Since the publishing of the Brundtland report in 1987, which proposed the syntagm

‘sustainable development’ to describe ‘the kind of development that meets the needs of

the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own

needs’ (p. 740), it is no longer considered only that natural resources need to be defended,

but that their use by our contemporaries also needs to be strictly controlled. From this

perspective, it becomes compulsory to reconsider the production technologies and the

means of consumption and to reshape the attitudes and behaviours towards the

environment.

The consequence of internationally stating the imperative to protect the planet and of

the consensus regarding the need to bring efforts together to that aim, result in national

policies aiming to reduce water and air pollution, to encourage selective waste disposal,

recycling of materials etc. These macro-level measures become truly efficient only when

connected to micro-level activities undertaken by ordinary people who adopt, more or

less frequently, to a greater or lesser extent, pro-environmental attitudes which could

consolidate sustainable development on the long-term. Sustainable development is

conditioned by the pro-environmental orientation and the pro-environmental behaviour,

which are, in their turn, connected to the friendly attitudes towards the environment.

1 Transilvania University of Brasov, mariela.pavalache@unitb v.ro