How does it pay to be circular in production processes? Eco-innovativeness and green jobs as moderators of a cost-efficiency advantage in European small and medium enterprises

This study investigates whether circularity in production processes generates a reduction of firms' production costs and the conditions that determine the intensity of this reduction. It explores the role of two moderators for this cost-efficiency advantage to emerge, namely, eco-innovativeness (investments dedicated to the adequate implementation of circular practices in current production processes) and green jobs (human resources dedicated to circular practices). Using data on 13,117 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the Flash Eurobarometer 2017, a cluster analysis revealed that there is a gradual path towards Circular Economy among European SMEs, with the implementation of increasingly more circular practices. Four ordered probit models confirmed that a higher level of circularity in processes achieved by European SMEs is related to a reduction in their production costs. Moreover, eco-innovativeness positively moderates this relation. In contrast, the relative share of green jobs in SMEs' workforce mitigates the impact of circularity on production costs. In practice, by engaging in circularity, SMEs can contribute to the United Nations goals for Sustainable Development while reducing production costs; although the level of this reduction depends on how circularity is implemented

The Need for Sustainability, Equity, and International Exchange: Perspectives of Early Career Environmental Psychologists on the Future of Conferences.

At the 2019 and 2021 International Conference on Environmental Psychology, discussions were held on the future of conferences in light of the enormous greenhouse gas emissions and inequities associated with conference travel. In this manuscript, we provide an early career researcher (ECR) perspective on this discussion. We argue that travel-intensive conference practices damage both the environment and our credibility as a discipline, conflict with the intrinsic values and motivations of our discipline, and are inequitable. As such, they must change. This change can be achieved by moving toward virtual and hybrid conferences, which can reduce researchers' carbon footprints and promote equity, if employed carefully and with informal exchange as a priority. By acting collectively and with the support of institutional change, we can adapt conference travel norms in our field. To investigate whether our arguments correspond to views in the wider community of ECRs within environmental psychology, we conducted a community case study. By leveraging our professional networks and directly contacting researchers in countries underrepresented in those networks, we recruited 117 ECRs in 32 countries for an online survey in February 2022. The surveyed ECRs supported a change in conference travel practices, including flying less, and perceived the number of researchers wanting to reduce their travel emissions to be growing. Thirteen percent of respondents had even considered leaving academia due to travel requirements. Concerning alternative conference formats, a mixed picture emerged. Overall, participants had slightly negative evaluations of virtual conferences, but expected them to improve within the next 5 years. However, ECRs with health issues, facing visa challenges, on low funding, living in remote areas, with caretaking obligations or facing travel restrictions due to COVID-19 expected a switch toward virtual or hybrid conferences to positively affect their groups. Participants were divided about their ability to build professional relationships in virtual settings, but believed that maintaining relationships virtually is possible. We conclude by arguing that the concerns of ECRs in environmental psychology about current and alternative conference practices must be taken seriously. We call on our community to work on collective solutions and less travel-intensive conference designs using participatory methods. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2022 Köhler, Kreil, Wenger, Darmandieu, Graves, Haugestad, Holzen, Keller, Lloyd, Marczak, Međugorac and Rosa.

Organisations in the transition towards environmental sustainability : an analysis of three possible paths

Pour combattre le changement climatique et faciliter la transition vers la soutenabilité environnementale, les organisations publiques comme privées doivent changer leurs pratiques et activer les comportements pro-environnementaux de leurs parties prenantes, par exemple de leurs employés. L’objectif général de cette thèse doctorale est d’étudier divers chemins possibles pour que les organisations privées et publiques intègrent la soutenabilité environnementale dans leurs politiques et dans leurs pratiques et d’explorer certaines implications de cette intégration. Nous analysons trois chemins possibles vers la soutenabilité environnementale pour les organisations.Le premier chemin passe par les pratiques circulaires, la décision de mettre en œuvre des éco-innovations pour alimenter une amélioration continue en circularité et le rôle d’une main d’œuvre verte dans la construction d’un avantage coût-efficacité pour les petites et moyennes entreprises européennes. Nous trouvons que les entreprises mettant en place des pratiques circulaires réduisent leurs coûts par rapport aux autres entreprises. Les entreprises qui investissent en continu dans les éco-innovations pour améliorer leurs pratiques circulaires réduisent encore plus leurs coûts. Enfin, les entreprises qui ont une plus grande proportion de main d’œuvre verte sont aussi plus efficientes, mais cet avantage est limité et augmenter cette main d’œuvre ne permet pas de réduire encore plus les coûts. Globalement, nos résultats indiquent que les petites et moyennes entreprises peuvent aussi bénéficier d’une proactivité en circularité. Le deuxième chemin analysé dans cette thèse doctorale passe par l’activation de comportements verts des salariés au sein d’une grande organisation privée. Dans cette étude, nous trouvons que construire un climat psychologique vert, en d’autres termes véhiculer des normes sociales pro-environnementales aux salariés, n’est pas suffisant pour activer le comportement vert des salariés. Plus précisément, nous avons analysé les comportements de citoyenneté organisationnelle pour l’environnement puisque ces derniers contribuent au fonctionnement organisationnel et à la préservation de l’environnement naturel. Afin d’activer ces comportements, les organisations doivent alimenter les relations d’échange social avec leurs salariés et activer l’identification organisationnelle de ces derniers. Le troisième chemin que nous explorons est l’activation du comportement de tri des déchets des individus à leur domicile par une organisation publique. Les résultats environnementaux de l’organisation publique incluent les impacts positifs ou négatifs des comportements individuels dans un contexte où les organisations publiques ont moins de contrôle sur ce qui se passe dans les domiciles particuliers que les entreprises n’en ont sur les espaces de travail. Par ailleurs, il n’y a en général pas de relations interpersonnelles entre les membres de l’organisation publique et les individus pour faciliter l’émergence de comportement pro-environnemental dans la sphère privée. Dans ce contexte, une stratégie possible est l’activation de la motivation morale qui pousse à agir pour l’environnement. Nous trouvons que ce type de motivation permet de surmonter de fortes barrières au comportement de tri des déchets. Lorsque ces barrières sont faibles, agir sur des facteurs structurels du programme de recyclage peut renforcer la commodité et suffire à activer le comportement.To combat climate change and facilitate the transition towards environmental sustainability, both public and private organisations need to change their practices and activate pro-environmental behaviours of their stakeholders, for instance employees. Therefore, the general purpose of the present doctoral dissertation is to study diverse paths available to private and public organisations to integrate environmental sustainability in their policies and practices, and explore some implications of this integration. We analyse three possible paths towards environmental sustainability for organisations.The first path is through circular practices, the decision to implement eco-innovations to foster a continuous improvement in circularity, and the role of a green workforce in building a cost-efficiency advantage for European small and medium enterprises. We found that the enterprises that implement circular practices are more cost-efficient than their counterparts. The enterprises that invest continuously in eco-innovations to improve their circular practices are even more cost-efficient. Finally, enterprises with a larger proportion of green workforce are also more cost-efficient, but this advantage is finite and increasing this specific workforce does not allow to be more cost-efficient. Overall, our results indicate that small and medium enterprises can also benefit from being proactive in circularity. The second path analysed in this doctoral dissertation is the activation of green behaviours of employees within a large private organisation. In this study, we found that building a green psychological climate, in other words convey pro-environmental social norms to employees, is not enough to trigger employee green behaviour. More specifically, we analysed organisational citizenship behaviours for the environment as they contribute to organisational functioning and to the preservation of the natural environment. To trigger these behaviours, organisations need to nurture social exchange relationships with their employees, and activate employees’ organisational identification. The third path that we explore is the activation of waste sorting behaviour of individuals within their private home by a public organisation. The environmental results of a public organisation include the positive or negative impact of individual behaviours in a context in which public organisations have less control over what happens within private homes than companies have over the workplace setting. Furthermore, there are usually no interpersonal relationships built between members of the public organisation and individuals to facilitate the occurrence of pro-environmental behaviour in the private sphere. In this context, a possible strategy is to activate a moral motivation to act for the environment. We found that this type of motivation is able to overcome high barriers to waste sorting behaviour. When these barriers are low, acting on structural factors of the recycling programme can be enough to enhance convenience and activate behaviour

Organizations in the transition towards environmental sustainability: an analysis of three possible paths

La sostenibilidad ambiental es uno de los pilares del desarrollo sostenible. Es más amplia que el cambio climático y sus efectos, a pesar de que la urgencia de la crisis climática haga que sea una de las prioridades internacionales más urgentes. Para combatir el cambio climático y facilitar la transición hacia la sostenibilidad ambiental, tanto las organizaciones públicas como privadas necesitan cambiar sus prácticas y activar comportamientos pro-ambientales de sus partes interesadas, por ejemplo, de sus empleados. El rol de la sociedad civil importa también, por ejemplo, a través de las decisiones tomadas y comportamientos realizados como individuos. por lo tanto, el objetivo general de la tesis doctoral presente es reportar sobre diversos caminos disponibles para las organizaciones privadas y públicas para integrar la sostenibilidad ambiental en sus políticas y prácticas, y explicar algunas implicaciones posibles de esta integración.Analizamos tres posibles vías hacia la sostenibilidad ambiental para las organizaciones.El primer camino es a través de las prácticas circulares, la decisión de desarrollar eco­innovaciones para fomentar una mejora continua en circularidad, y el rol de una mano de obra verde en construir una ventaja de eficiencia en costes para las pequeñas y medianas empresas europeas. Encontramos que las empresas que implementan prácticas circulares son más eficientes que las demás. Las empresas que invierten de manera continua en eco-innovaciones para mejorar sus prácticas circulares son aún más eficientes en sus costes. Por último, las empresas con una mayor proporción de mano de obra verde son también más eficientes en sus costes, pero esta ventaja es limitada y aumentar esta mano de obra específica no permite ser más eficientes en los costes. Globalmente, nuestros resultados indican que no solamente las grandes sino también las pequeñas y medianas empresas pueden beneficiar de ser proactivas en circularidad. Estos actores claves en las economías europeas pueden contribuir como motores a la transición hacia la sostenibilidad ambiental en esta región.El segundo camino ilustrado en esta tesis doctoral es la activación de los comportamientos verdes de los empleados adentro de una gran organización privada. En este estudio, encontramos que cuando la organización construye un clima psicológico verde, en otras palabras, transmite normas sociales pro-ambientales a los empleados, no es suficiente para activar el comportamiento verde de los empleados. Más específicamente, analizamos comportamientos de ciudadanía organizacional para el medio ambiente ya que contribuyen al funcionamiento organizacional y a la preservación del medio ambiente. Para activar estos comportamientos, las organizaciones necesitan alimentar relaciones de intercambio social con sus empleados, y activar su identificación organizacional, para activar efectivamente dichos comportamientos. En este estudio, pudimos revelar y poner de manifiesto algunos de los determinantes socio-psicológicos del comportamiento de los empleados, y que han sido poco estudiados en la literatura sobre comportamiento ambiental en el lugar de trabajo.El tercer camino que reportamos es la activación del comportamiento de separación de residuos por individuos en su hogar privado por una organización pública. Los resultados del comportamiento individual forman parte de los resultados ambientales de la organización pública. Sin embargo, las organizaciones públicas tienen menos control sobre los hogares privados que las empresas tienen sobre los espacios de trabajo, y en general no se construyen relaciones interpersonales entre los miembros de la organización pública y los individuos para facilitar la aparición del comportamiento pro-ambiental en la esfera privada. En este contexto,una estrategia posible es la activación de la motivación moral de actuar para el medio ambiente.Encontramos que esta estrategia dio frutos. La motivación moral es también capaz de superar barreras altas al comportamiento de separación de residuos. En cambio, cuando se percibe que estas barreras son bajas, actuar sobre factores estructurales del esquema de reciclaje puede ser suficiente para aumentar la comodidad y activar el comportamiento.Globalmente, nuestros resultados ilustran algunas de las posibles estrategias que las organizaciones pueden implementar para facilitar la transición hacia la sostenibilidad ambiental. Sin embargo, reconocemos que la pandemia COVID-19 ha cambiado muchas de las condiciones en las cuales realizamos estos estudios. No obstante, sostenemos que nuestros resultados y sus implicaciones son aún relevantes en la nueva era "normal" después de la pandemia. Además, las fuerzas y capacidades que los individuos y las organizaciones construyeron actuando para el medio ambiente pueden ser ventajas claves para enfrentarse con más confidencia a otros tipos de crisis como la pandernia COVID-19.To combat climate change and facilitate the transition towards environmental sustainability, both public and private organisations need to change their practices and activate pro-environmental behaviours of their stakeholders, for instance employees. Therefore, the general purpose of the present doctoral dissertation is to study diverse paths available to private and public organisations to integrate environmental sustainability in their policies and practices, and explore some implications of this integration. We analyse three possible paths towards environmental sustainability for organisations. The first path is through circular practices, the decision to implement eco-innovations to foster a continuous improvement in circularity, and the role of a green workforce in building a cost-efficiency advantage for European small and medium enterprises. We found that the enterprises that implement circular practices are more cost-efficient than their counterparts. The enterprises that invest continuously in eco-innovations to improve their circular practices are even more cost-efficient. Finally, enterprises with a larger proportion of green workforce are also more cost-efficient, but this advantage is finite and increasing this specific workforce does not allow to be more cost-efficient. Overall, our results indicate that small and medium enterprises can also benefit from being proactive in circularity. The second path analysed in this doctoral dissertation is the activation of green behaviours of employees within a large private organisation. In this study, we found that building a green psychological climate, in other words convey pro-environmental social norms to employees, is not enough to trigger employee green behaviour. More specifically, we analysed organisational citizenship behaviours for the environment as they contribute to organisational functioning and to the preservation of the natural environment. To trigger these behaviours, organisations need to nurture social exchange relationships with their employees, and activate employees’ organisational identification. The third path that we explore is the activation of waste sorting behaviour of individuals within their private home by a public organisation. The environmental results of a public organisation include the positive or negative impact of individual behaviours in a context in which public organisations have less control over what happens within private homes than companies have over the workplace setting. Furthermore, there are usually no interpersonal relationships built between members of the public organisation and individuals to facilitate the occurrence of pro-environmental behaviour in the private sphere. In this context, a possible strategy is to activate a moral motivation to act for the environment. We found that this type of motivation is able to overcome high barriers to waste sorting behaviour. When these barriers are low, acting on structural factors of the recycling programme can be enough to enhance convenience and activate behaviour.<br /

The Need for Sustainability, Equity, and International Exchange: Perspectives of Early Career Environmental Psychologists on the Future of Conferences

At the 2019 and 2021 International Conference on Environmental Psychology, discussions were held on the future of conferences in light of the enormous greenhouse gas emissions and inequities associated with conference travel. In this manuscript, we provide an early career researcher (ECR) perspective on this discussion. We argue that travel-intensive conference practices damage both the environment and our credibility as a discipline, conflict with the intrinsic values and motivations of our discipline, and are inequitable. As such, they must change. This change can be achieved by moving toward virtual and hybrid conferences, which can reduce researchers’ carbon footprints and promote equity, if employed carefully and with informal exchange as a priority. By acting collectively and with the support of institutional change, we can adapt conference travel norms in our field. To investigate whether our arguments correspond to views in the wider community of ECRs within environmental psychology, we conducted a community case study. By leveraging our professional networks and directly contacting researchers in countries underrepresented in those networks, we recruited 117 ECRs in 32 countries for an online survey in February 2022. The surveyed ECRs supported a change in conference travel practices, including flying less, and perceived the number of researchers wanting to reduce their travel emissions to be growing. Thirteen percent of respondents had even considered leaving academia due to travel requirements. Concerning alternative conference formats, a mixed picture emerged. Overall, participants had slightly negative evaluations of virtual conferences, but expected them to improve within the next 5 years. However, ECRs with health issues, facing visa challenges, on low funding, living in remote areas, with caretaking obligations or facing travel restrictions due to COVID-19 expected a switch toward virtual or hybrid conferences to positively affect their groups. Participants were divided about their ability to build professional relationships in virtual settings, but believed that maintaining relationships virtually is possible. We conclude by arguing that the concerns of ECRs in environmental psychology about current and alternative conference practices must be taken seriously. We call on our community to work on collective solutions and less travel-intensive conference designs using participatory methods