Working on the environment

Organizations increasingly recognize that environmental problems will reduce if their employees would act more pro-environmentally, but struggle with the question how to realise this. This PhD project shows that employees act more pro-environmentally at work when they care about the environment, and when the work context makes them focus on environmental consequences. Importantly, it appears that in the right context, people with relative weak environmental values will act as pro-environmentally as those with relative strong environmental values.Pro-environmental behaviour (at home or at work) generally implies a conflict between immediate gratification or financial gains and desirable long-term benefits for the environment. Yet, despite this, people are motivated to act pro-environmentally when they are focused on benefiting the environment. When people are focused on benefiting the environment, they are less focused and influenced by possible inconvenience and financial costs of pro-environmental behaviours. The extent to which employees are focused on the environment depends on how strongly they value nature and the environment, and on the context in which decisions are made. First, the context needs to facilitate pro-environmental actions. Second, the context can strengthen employees’ focus on benefiting the environment, for example by signs of corporate environmental responsibility. Strong environmental values and contextual factors that make people focus on the environment can even encourage pro-environmental actions after prolonged working on a strenuous task. See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjQFDI8hcc