IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i23p8826-d452385.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysing the Relationship between University Students’ Ecological Footprint and Their Connection with Nature and Pro-Environmental Attitude

Author

Listed:
  • Mónica Fernández

    (Department of Education, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Campus Sant Cugat, Josep Trueta, Sant Cugat del Vallès, 08195 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Gisela Cebrián

    (Department of Pedagogy, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Campus Sescelades, 43007 Tarragona, Spain)

  • Elisa Regadera

    (School of Communication, Campus Barcelona, Inmaculada 22, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, 08017 Barcelona, Spain)

  • M. Yolanda Fernández

    (Department of Social Sciences, Universidad Europea Miguel de Cervantes, Calle del Padre Julio Chevalier, 2, 47012 Valladolid, Spain)

Abstract

In the last decade, universities worldwide have adopted various measures intended to promote sustainability in higher education and include it in the curriculum. However, although this paradigm shift appears to be contributing to students’ acquisition of the knowledge, skills and values necessary to fight for a more sustainable world, serious global crises such as the present SARS-CoV-2 pandemic oblige us to rethink our behaviour and spur us to accelerate the move towards a deep-seated commitment to the environment and people. Therefore, the aims of this study were (a) to explore consumption habits in students at four Spanish universities by analysing their individual ecological footprint (EF); (b) to develop indices of connection with nature and a pro-environmental attitude and to determine relationships between these indices and students’ consumption. Among other factors, our results showed that private university students have a higher EF than public university students; that food consumption has the greatest impact on individuals’ EF; and that those who consume more sustainably do not show a more pro-environmental attitude or feel a greater connection with nature. Therefore, we conclude that there was no apparent direct relationship between study participants’ convictions and their daily behaviour. There is a pressing need in education to demonstrate the connection between our actions and their environmental impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Mónica Fernández & Gisela Cebrián & Elisa Regadera & M. Yolanda Fernández, 2020. "Analysing the Relationship between University Students’ Ecological Footprint and Their Connection with Nature and Pro-Environmental Attitude," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-14, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:23:p:8826-:d:452385
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/23/8826/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/23/8826/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Druckman, Angela & Jackson, Tim, 2009. "The carbon footprint of UK households 1990-2004: A socio-economically disaggregated, quasi-multi-regional input-output model," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 2066-2077, May.
    2. Jennifer Franz & Elissaios Papyrakis, 2011. "Online calculators of ecological footprint: do they promote or dissuade sustainable behaviour?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(6), pages 391-401, November.
    3. Angela R. Bielefeldt, 2013. "Pedagogies to Achieve Sustainability Learning Outcomes in Civil and Environmental Engineering Students," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(10), pages 1-23, October.
    4. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Brown, Marilyn A., 2010. "Twelve metropolitan carbon footprints: A preliminary comparative global assessment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(9), pages 4856-4869, September.
    5. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Edoardo Thomas Alfonso Maria Eichberg & Aurelie Charles, 2024. "The Role of the Civic University in Facilitating Inclusive and Transformative Pedagogical Approaches to the Sustainable Development Goals: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-26, March.
    2. Ana Torres & Paula Carvalho & Jorge Costa & Claudia Silva & Rosa Marina Afonso & Carla Nascimento & Manuel Loureiro, 2023. "Environmental Connection, Awareness, and Behaviors in University Students: An Exploratory Portuguese Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-15, September.
    3. Kersty Hobson & Megan O’Byrne, 2024. "Sharing and Repairing at University: On Student Practices, and the Future of the Circular Campus," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 4(4), pages 2579-2598, December.
    4. Zhuxuan Yan & Juliann Cortese, 2023. "I Can Feel Your Pain: Investigating the Role of Empathy and Guilt on Sustainable Behavioral Intentions to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Plastic Bags among College Students," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-18, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dong, Huijuan & Geng, Yong & Xi, Fengming & Fujita, Tsuyoshi, 2013. "Carbon footprint evaluation at industrial park level: A hybrid life cycle assessment approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 298-307.
    2. Nelson, Ewan & Warren, Peter, 2020. "UK transport decoupling: On track for clean growth in transport?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 39-51.
    3. Ramachandra, T.V. & Bajpai, Vishnu & Kulkarni, Gouri & Aithal, Bharath H. & Han, Sun Sheng, 2017. "Economic disparity and CO2 emissions: The domestic energy sector in Greater Bangalore, India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 1331-1344.
    4. Jani Laine & Juudit Ottelin & Jukka Heinonen & Seppo Junnila, 2017. "Consequential Implications of Municipal Energy System on City Carbon Footprints," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-14, October.
    5. Chen, Jiandong & Fan, Wei & Li, Ding & Liu, Xin & Song, Malin, 2020. "Driving factors of global carbon footprint pressure: Based on vegetation carbon sequestration," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    6. Paulina Schiappacasse & Bernhard Müller & Le Thuy Linh, 2019. "Towards Responsible Aggregate Mining in Vietnam," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, August.
    7. Pina Puntillo, 2023. "Circular economy business models: Towards achieving sustainable development goals in the waste management sector—Empirical evidence and theoretical implications," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 941-954, March.
    8. R. Ebrahimi & S. Choobchian & H. Farhadian & I. Goli & E. Farmandeh & H. Azadi, 2022. "Investigating the effect of vocational education and training on rural women’s empowerment," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    9. Bárbara Galleli & Elder Semprebon & Joyce Aparecida Ramos dos Santos & Noah Emanuel Brito Teles & Mateus Santos de Freitas-Martins & Raquel Teodoro da Silva Onevetch, 2021. "Institutional Pressures, Sustainable Development Goals and COVID-19: How Are Organisations Engaging?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, November.
    10. Sagarika Dey & Priyanka Devi, 2019. "Impact of TVET on Labour Market Outcomes and Women’s Empowerment in Rural Areas: A Case Study from Cachar District, Assam," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 13(3), pages 357-371, December.
    11. Xinkuo Xu & Liyan Han, 2017. "Diverse Effects of Consumer Credit on Household Carbon Emissions at Quantiles: Evidence from Urban China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-25, September.
    12. Maria Sassi, 2020. "A SEM Approach to the Direct and Indirect Links between WaSH Services and Access to Food in Countries in Protracted Crises: The Case of Western Bahr-el-Ghazal State, South Sudan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-13, November.
    13. Olga Stepanova & Magdalena Romanov, 2021. "Urban Planning as a Strategy to Implement Social Sustainability Policy Goals? The Case of Temporary Housing for Immigrants in Gothenburg, Sweden," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-17, February.
    14. Michel, Hanno, 2020. "From local to global: The role of knowledge, transfer, and capacity building for successful energy transitions," Discussion Papers, Research Group Digital Mobility and Social Differentiation SP III 2020-603, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    15. Hervé Corvellec & Johan Hultman & Anne Jerneck & Susanne Arvidsson & Johan Ekroos & Niklas Wahlberg & Timothy W. Luke, 2021. "Resourcification: A non‐essentialist theory of resources for sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 1249-1256, November.
    16. Wilson Charles Wilson & Maja Slingerland & Frederick P. Baijukya & Hannah Zanten & Simon Oosting & Ken E. Giller, 2021. "Integrating the soybean-maize-chicken value chains to attain nutritious diets in Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(6), pages 1595-1612, December.
    17. Jones, Lindsey & d'Errico, Marco, 2019. "Whose resilience matters? Like-for-like comparison of objective and subjective evaluations of resilience," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-1.
    18. Bin Xue & Bingsheng Liu & Tao Liang & Dong Zhao & Tao Wang & Xingbin Chen, 2022. "A heterogeneous decision criteria system evaluating sustainable infrastructure development: From the lens of multidisciplinary stakeholder engagement," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 556-579, August.
    19. Sudheesh Ramapurath Chemmencheri, 2016. "Social Protection as a Human Right in South Asia," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 10(2), pages 236-252, August.
    20. Ingrid Boas & Frank Biermann & Norichika Kanie, 2016. "Cross-sectoral strategies in global sustainability governance: towards a nexus approach," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 449-464, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:23:p:8826-:d:452385. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.