The role of environmental education in sustainable consumption and lifestyle

Abstract

Environmental education is expected to have significant influence on environmental awareness, everyday lifestyle and consumer behavior of the participants. Our paper aims to explore how content, intensity and ways of environmental education reflect in the knowledge, values, attitudes and actual behavior of university students and high school students in Hungary. The questionnaire-based survey was conducted by the Department of Environmental Economics and Technology at Corvinus University of Budapest (CUB), supported by the EEA and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism. The results give space to a wider comparative study both among universities representing different professions and between higher education and secondary education level. Results show that higher intensity of environmental education gradually increases the environmental knowledge of involved students – at both analyzed education levels. Environmental knowledge at secondary education level was definitely higher than expected; the results at higher education level were not surprising in this sense. Environmental awareness, however, depends rather on commitment reflected in the choice of an environmental specialization at the university level. This phenomenon is more complicated at secondary school level as there is no similar specialization there. Consumer behavior is even more complex; the impact of environmental education is only one reason behind. However, the focus of environmental education is very important in the attitudes toward reducing consumption. Respondents are classified into clusters according to their consumer behaviour, environmental awareness and attitude to consumption. Interestingly, university students reported to be significantly more conscious about the negative environmental impacts and the necessity of behavioural change than respondents from secondary schools.