Influences of Life Cycle Thinking-based Environmental Education Program on Pro-environmental Behavior

Abstract

Objective. Environmental education is an important tool for raising awareness of sustainability and environmental issues and ultimately, changing behavior to create a sustainable society. The authors have developed a novel environmental education program using LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) software, which addresses global warming as one of the global environmental problems. This program aims to making learners (1) realize the "link" between daily life and global warming through the life cycle of consumer products (e.g. mobile phones, notebooks, pens) , and (2) explore ways to reduce CO 2 emissions in daily life based on life cycle thinking. The objective of the present study is to analyze the influences of the program on learners' environmental awareness and attitude as well as their pro-environmental behavior intention. Results and Discussion. The program was implemented in three classes of second-year high school students in Kanagawa prefecture, Japan. Questionnaire surveys were conducted with 126 students to analyze the effects of the program. Pretest-posttest design was used to measure the changes in sense of the "link," key determinants of behavioral intention (e.g. a sense of responsibility) , and pro-environmental behavior intention. Pass analysis was performed using the survey data to reveal a mechanism that explains the change in proenvironmental behavior intention caused by the implementation of the program. Results of the analysis suggested that the realization of the "link" between daily life and CO 2 emission based on life cycle thinking seems to increase a sense of responsibility, and then the increase mainly seems to induce the formation of or the increase in behavioral intention towards CO 2 reduction. In addition, after implementing the program, another survey was conducted to collect data on students' impression of the program. Most students answered that the use of LCA software left strong impression on them. Qualitative analysis of students' description about the reasons why it was impressive suggested that the calculation using LCA software contributes to not only understanding life cycle thinking in general but also realizing the "link" between their own actions and CO 2 emissions, and the effectiveness of their own behavioral changes. Conclusions. The environmental education program that the authors developed is effective to enhance proenvironmental behavior intention by making students realize the "link" between daily life and global warming based on life cycle thinking. Especially the use of the LCA software that is the core of the program contributes to making students realize that their own actions in daily life is closely connected to global warming.