Interrelationships between environmental psychological factors and environmental behaviour among Malaysians

The facilities management profession has been extended to engage with issues o f sustainability and environmental degradation mostly caused by human activities such as energy consumption, water wastage, solid waste generation and air pollution. Previous studies suggested that environmental behaviour is influenced by a series o f psychological factors. Understanding the interrelationship between these factors and the behaviour in the local context will help policy maker form better strategies to improve environmental behaviour among Malaysians. Furthermore, such studies are currently absent. To address these issues, this research identified environmental psychological factors that influence environmental behaviour. Next, an investigation on the interrelationship between environmental psychological factors and environmental behaviours pertaining to the four major environmental issues, namely water, air, solid waste and climate change were conducted. Finally, significant differences in the influence o f the environmental psychological factors on environmental behaviours across urban and rural community were examined. In the research, a nationwide survey was conducted in 13 states and 3 federal territories in Malaysia. The sampling method used was multistage stratified random sampling. 6616 questionnaires from respondents across different demographics of Malaysians were collected. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to illustrate the interrelationship of the affecting environmental psychological factors and environmental behaviours (water quality conservation behaviour, air quality conservation behaviour, solid waste reduction behaviour and low carbon behaviour). In addition, Multigroup Analysis (PLS-MGA) was conducted to compare these interrelationships across urban and rural groups. Findings revealed that the environmental awareness, concern and attitude were significant and positively related to corresponding behaviours. Notably, the environmental concern was the most influencing factor to determine water and air quality conservation behaviours as well as the low carbon behaviour. Besides, awareness of water pollution and climate change towards their corresponding behaviours; and concerns towards the water and air quality conservation behaviour were significantly different across the urban and rural residents. The findings would be beneficial for government and nongovernment agencies to form better environmental policy and decision making, especially in fostering positive environmental behaviour among Malaysians

The effect of superstitious beliefs on property purchase intention

Superstitious belief is influencing decision-making process among the Chinese community, even though the effect of superstitious beliefs is declining by generations, however, previous literature has suggested that it is remained and inherited in the property purchasing decision process. Chinese community, which is the second large ethnic group in Malaysia, that their culture has been influencing by the local may still hold such believe when purchasing the property. This research intended to understand how the superstitious belief can influence their property purchasing intention, by testing within the context of psychological factors: attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control, believe and past experience. A questionnaire survey is conducted at the property exhibition at Malacca, a state famous and rich with multiple culture in Malaysia. The Partial Least Square – Structural Equation Modelling Method was used to test the hypothesis. The findings show that the buyers’ attitude, belief and perceived behavioral control significantly affect the buyers’ purchasing intention. Local developers and agents should realize that the superstitious beliefs will influence buyer’s purchasing decision and the understanding of superstitious behavior will help to enhance marketing process to stimulate residential property purchases are addressed

Socioeconomic sustainability as environmental performance indicators

Environmental indicators are gaining importance for nation to measure quantitative evidence of environment conditions. Global Environmental Performance Index has established comprehensive indicators on measuring and tracking a country environmental performance. The two major objectives of Global EPI are to measure Environmental Public Health and Ecosystem Vitality performance. This paper intends to introduce and explain a new objective, known as Socioeconomic Sustainability that has been implemented in Malaysia EPI and highlights the rationale of having this objective. Later, the paper explains the new environmental performance policy category under the Socioeconomic Sustainability, including resource efficiency, environmental awareness and behaviour and environmental compliance. The paper concludes by outline the challenges associate with each new indicators

Public environmental awareness and behaviour in Malaysia

Considering the causes of environmental degradation are mainly due to anthropogenic activities, this study aims to explore the need of indicating the social-psychological factors among Malaysians in qualifying the level of public environmental awareness and behaviour. A nationwide study has been conducted to examine environmental awareness and behaviour from 13 States and three Federal Territories. The result demonstrated current level of environmental awareness and behaviour among Malaysians, as according to the four categories; water pollution, air pollution, waste management and climate change

Public Environmental Awareness and Behaviour in Malaysia

Considering the causes of environmental degradation are mainly due to anthropogenic activities, this study aims to explore the need of indicating the social-psychological factors among Malaysians in qualifying the level of public environmental awareness and behaviour. A nationwide study has been conducted to examine environmental awareness and behaviour from 13 States and three Federal Territories. The result demonstrated current level of environmental awareness and behaviour among Malaysians, as according to the four categories; water pollution, air pollution, waste management and climate change.2398-4279 © 2017 The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, UniversitiTeknologi MARA, Malaysia.Keywords: Environmental Performance Index; Environmental Awareness; Environmental Behaviour; Malaysia

Review of socio-psychological determinants in public environmental behaviour

In the era of urbanism, the emerging and ongoing development has been trendy and frequently associated with adverse environmental impacts such as anthropogenic climate change and waste secretion. Poor environmental behaviours among public are accused for the negative impacts towards the environment. Considering that, it is importance to understand the interrelationship of socio-psychological factors to environmental behaviour for it will help the stakeholders such as policy makers and social marketers to form better strategies to foster proenvironmental behaviour among the public. Previously, researchers had explored socio-psychological factors such as environmental concern, attitude, intention, cognition, awareness and knowledge that affect their environmental behaviour. Based on the precedent studies, this paper aims to review the gaps among socio-psychological factors in determining the public environmental behaviour among Malaysian. Theories and concepts of environmentalism that are related to environmental behaviours are discussed and reviewed. The paper concludes by introducing importance of socio-psychological factors that are plausible to explain the causes of human environmental behaviour for the use of policy and decision making

Environmental awareness and behaviour index for Malaysia

National Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is evaluated every two years to examine the environmental performance in Malaysia concerning different indicators such as climate change and water quality. Considering the causes of environmental degradation are mainly due to anthropogenic activities, this study aims to explore the need of indicating the social-psychological factors among Malaysians in qualifying the level of public environmental awareness and behaviour. A nationwide study has been conducted to examine environmental awareness and behaviour from 13 States and three Federal Territories. The result demonstrated current level of environmental awareness and behaviour among Malaysians, as according to the four categories; water pollution, air pollution, waste management and climate change