Meta-analysis of human connection to nature and proenvironmental behavior.

Understanding what drives environmentally protective or destructive behavior is important to the design and implementation of effective public policies to encourage people's engagement in proenvironmental behavior (PEB). Research shows that a connection to nature is associated with greater engagement in PEB. However, the variety of instruments and methods used in these studies poses a major barrier to integrating research findings. We conducted a meta-analysis of the relationship between connection to nature and PEB. We identified studies through a systematic review of the literature and used Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software to analyze the results from 37 samples (n = 13,237) and to test for moderators. A random-effects model demonstrated a positive and significant association between connection to nature and PEB (r = 0.42, 95% CI 0.36, 0.47, p < 0.001). People who are more connected to nature reported greater engagement in PEB. Standard tests indicated little effect of publication bias in the sample. There was significant heterogeneity among the samples. Univariate categorical analyses showed that the scales used to measure connection to nature and PEB were significant moderators and explained the majority of the between-study variance. The geographic location of a study, age of participants, and the percentage of females in a study were not significant moderators. We found that a deeper connection to nature may partially explain why some people behave more proenvironmentally than others and that the relationship is ubiquitous. Facilitating a stronger connection to nature may result in greater engagement in PEB and conservation, although more longitudinal studies with randomized experiments are required to demonstrate causation.

Metaanálisis de la Conexión Humana con la Naturaleza y el Comportamiento a Favor del Ambiental Resumen El entendimiento de los conductores del comportamiento de protección o destrucción ambiental es importante para el diseño e implementación de políticas públicas que fomenten la participación de las personas dentro del comportamiento a favor del ambiente (PEB, en inglés). Las investigaciones muestran que la conexión con la naturaleza está asociada con una mayor participación en el PEB. Sin embargo, la variedad de instrumentos y métodos que utilizados en estos estudios presentan una barrera importante para la integración de los resultados de las investigaciones. Realizamos un metaanálisis de la relación entre la conexión con la naturaleza y el PEB. Identificamos estudios por medio de una revisión sistemática de la literatura y utilizamos software de Metaanálisis Completo para analizar los resultados de 37 muestras (n = 13,237) y para examinar a los moderadores. Un modelo de efectos azarosos demostró una asociación positiva y significativa entre la conexión con la naturaleza y el PEB (r = 0.42, 95% CI 0.36, 0.47, p < 0.001). Las personas que están más conectadas con la naturaleza reportaron una mayor participación en el PEB. Las pruebas estándares indicaron un efecto menor del sesgo de publicación en la muestra. Hubo una heterogeneidad significativa entre las muestras. Los análisis univariados categóricos mostraron que las escalas usadas para medir la conexión con la naturaleza y el PEB fueron moderadores significativos y explicaron la mayoría de la varianza entre estudios. La ubicación geográfica de un estudio, la edad de los participantes, y el porcentaje de mujeres en un estudio no fueron moderadores significativos. Encontramos que una conexión más profunda con la naturaleza puede explicar parcialmente por qué algunas personas se comportan más a favor del ambiente que otras y que dicha relación es ubicua. La facilitación de una conexión más fuerte con la naturaleza puede resultar en una mayor participación en el PEB y en la conservación, aunque se requieren estudios más longitudinales con experimentos aleatorios para demostrar la causalidad.

Increasing active travel: aims, methods and baseline measures of a quasi-experimental study.

BACKGROUND: Policy advisers are seeking robust evidence on the effectiveness of measures, such as promoting walking and cycling, that potentially offer multiple benefits, including enhanced health through physical activity, alongside reductions in energy use, traffic congestion and carbon emissions. This paper outlines the 'ACTIVE' study, designed to test whether the Model Communities Programme in two New Zealand cities is increasing walking and cycling. The intervention consists of the introduction of cycle and walkway infrastructure, along with measures to encourage active travel. This paper focuses on the rationale for our chosen study design and methods. METHOD: The study design is multi-level and quasi-experimental, with two intervention and two control cities. Baseline measures were taken in 2011 and follow-up measures in 2012 and 2013. Our face-to-face surveys measured walking and cycling, but also awareness, attitudes and habits. We measured explanatory and confounding factors for mode choice, including socio-demographic and well-being variables. Data collected from the same households on either two or three occasions will be analysed using multi-level models that take account of clustering at the household and individual levels. A cost-benefit analysis will also be undertaken, using our estimates of carbon savings from mode shifts. The matching of the intervention and control cities was quite close in terms of socio-demographic variables, including ethnicity, and baseline levels of walking and cycling. DISCUSSION: This multidisciplinary study provides a strong design for evaluating an intervention to increase walking and cycling in a developed country with relatively low baseline levels of active travel. Its strengths include the use of data from control cities as well as intervention cities, an extended evaluation period with a reasonable response rate from a random community survey and the availability of instrumental variables for sensitivity analyses.

Composite environmental indices-a case of rickety rankings.

Composite indices have been widely used to rank the environmental performance of nations. Such environmental indices can be useful in communicating complex information as a single value and have the potential to generate political and media awareness of environmental issues. However, poorly constructed, or poorly communicated indices, can hinder efforts to identify environmental failings, and there are considerable differences in rank among existing environmental indices. Here, we provide a review of the conceptual frameworks and methodological choices used for existing environmental indices to enhance our understanding of their accuracy and applicability. In the present study, we review existing global indices according to their conceptual framework (objectives of the index and set of indicators included) and methodological choices made in their construction (e.g., weighting and aggregation). We examine how differences in conceptual frameworks and methodology may yield a more, or less, optimistic view of a country's environment. Our results indicate that (1) multidimensional environmental indices with indicators related to human health and welfare or policy are positively correlated; (2) environment-only indices are positively correlated with one another or are not correlated at all; (3) multidimensional indices and environment-only indices are negatively correlated with each other or are not correlated at all. This indicates that the conceptual frameworks and indicators included may influence a country's rank among different environmental indices. Our results highlight that, when choosing an existing environmental index-or developing a new one-it is important to assess whether the conceptual framework (and associated indicators) and methodological choices are appropriate for the phenomenon being measured and reported on. This is important because the inclusion of confounding indicators in environmental indices may provide a misleading view of the quality of a country's environment.

To select effective interventions for pro-environmental behaviour change, we need to consider determinants of behaviour.

Encouraging pro-environmental behaviour is necessary to reduce CO2 emissions and limit global climate change. Many reviews and meta-analyses have been published examining the effectiveness of interventions to promote pro-environmental behaviour. Yet, it remains unclear which interventions are most effective, when and why. Because interventions are more likely to encourage pro-environmental behaviour when they target key determinants of the relevant behaviour, it is critical to understand which interventions target which determinants. We introduce a classification system that links six types of interventions to 13 determinants of environmental behaviour. Our classification enables a theory-based understanding of when and why interventions are effective (or not) in encouraging pro-environmental behaviour and provides guidelines to practitioners to select interventions that are most likely to change the key determinants of a specific target behaviour, and thus likely to be the most successful in changing behaviour in the given context.

How to Effectively Encourage Sustainable Food Choices: A Mini-Review of Available Evidence.

Food choices are difficult to change. People's individual motivations (such as taste, cost, and food preferences) can be at odds with the negative environmental outcomes of their food choices (such as deforestation, water pollution, and climate change). How then can people be encouraged to adopt more sustainable food choices? This rapid review uses a dual-processing framework of decision-making to structure an investigation of the effectiveness of interventions to encourage sustainable food choices (e.g., local and organic food consumption, reducing meat and dairy intake, reducing food waste) via voluntary behavior change. The review includes interventions that rely on fast, automatic decision-making processes (e.g., nudging) and interventions that rely on more deliberate decision-making (e.g., information provision). These interventions have varying degrees of success in terms of encouraging sustainable food choices. This mini-review outlines some of the ways in which our understanding of sustainable food choices could be enhanced. This includes a call for the inclusion of possible moderators and mediators (past behavior, attitudes, beliefs, values) as part of effect measurements, because these elucidate the mechanisms by which behavior change occurs. In light of the climate change challenge, studies that include long-term effect measurements are essential as these can provide insight on how to foster sustained and durable changes.

Increasing active travel: results of a quasi-experimental study of an intervention to encourage walking and cycling.

BACKGROUND: There is increased interest in the effectiveness and co-benefits of measures to promote walking and cycling, including health gains from increased physical activity and reductions in fossil fuel use and vehicle emissions. This paper analyses the changes in walking and cycling in two New Zealand cities that accompanied public investment in infrastructure married with programmes to encourage active travel. METHOD: Using a quasi-experimental two-group pre-post study design, we estimated changes in travel behaviour from baseline in 2011 to mid-programme in 2012, and postprogramme in 2013. The intervention and control cities were matched in terms of sociodemographic variables and baseline levels of walking and cycling. A face-to-face survey obtained information on walking and cycling. We also drew from the New Zealand Travel Survey, a national ongoing survey of travel behaviour, which was conducted in the study areas. Estimates from the two surveys were combined using meta-analysis techniques. RESULTS: The trips and physical activity were evaluated. Relative to the control cities, the odds of trips being by active modes (walking or cycling) increased by 37% (95% CI 8% to 73%) in the intervention cities between baseline and postintervention. The net proportion of trips made by active modes increased by about 30%. In terms of physical activity levels, there was little evidence of an overall change. DISCUSSION: Comparing the intervention cities with the matched controls, we found substantial changes in walking and cycling, and conclude that the improvements in infrastructure and associated programmes appear to have successfully arrested the general decline in active mode use evident in recent years.