Sustainability Culture and Pro-Environmental Behaviors Event

Sustainability culture and pro-environmental behaviors

The long-awaited conference organized by AR19 Srl has just concluded. Safety On Strategy and Innovhub-Experimental Stations for Industry on the Culture of Sustainability and Pro-Environmental Behaviors as a Tool for Innovation in Industry and Services on 28/09 where Alberto Rosso introduced the innovative theme of #behavior #pro_envirorment #workrelated and #envirormentsignal to manage risk and performance.

The speakers involved among the industries most attentive to the topic shared innovative tools and ideas aimed at promoting the development of the new frontier of ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE OF ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY’, through a specific focus on the topic of so-called pro-environmental and pro-sustainability behaviors in organizational and work contexts, aimed at preventing environmental risk and implementing sustainability paths.

The Conference saw the expression of the marriage between industry, services, the third sector and scientific research, with a focus on the human factor, and how the multiple and complex “ingredients” of this innovative approach make it possible to accelerate sustainability policies and unmask attempts at greenwashing.

Let's see what emerged from the interventions of the many companies involved.

InnovHUB Experimental Stations for Industry - Angelo Lunghi

The theme addressed fits perfectly with the Innovhub Mission, that is, supporting the scientific and technological development of industry in an increasingly sustainable way, with centers of expertise in food, energy, sustainability, and industrial processes. The Culture of Sustainability appears particularly in line with current industrial challenges, related to Quality, Health, Safety and the Environment. It appears crucial, in the Innovhub experience, to promote understanding of industrial and environmental risks even in a work-related context, to develop effective strategies for risk prevention and management.

AR19 – Alberto Rosso

How can we move from theory to practice with respect to pro-environmental, pro-sustainability behaviors and weak signals to manage risk and performance? Starting from the fact, they are characterized by specific organizational and individual determinants and that concrete tools are now available to measure them and to train new skills. Data and studies demonstrate that so-called PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIORS (PEBs) accelerate the implementation of sustainability policies and green-oriented practices in organizations (consistency with sustainable development goals, greenhouse gas emissions reduction, and energy transition) through a mix of strategies based not only on the imposition of rules and procedures, but also by leveraging the positive commitment of employees (and contractists). It follows that there was a need for an appropriate integration of the HUMAN FACTOR and for coherent PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL AND PRO-SUSTAINABILITY BEHAVIORS’, where the role and contribution of psychological disciplines for the study of PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIORS in the WORK field appears crucial.

Pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs): a series of actions taken to benefit the environment.

They include attitudes, awareness, motivations, beliefs, knowledge and social aspects to reduce pollution and promote sustainability. They have been studied especially in the context of the private and public spheres. Rarely in the work context.

In the work context, we speak of PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL (WORKPLACE) BEHAVIORS PEB - EGB – OCBE and they present a dual role: 1) a set of worker behaviors that contribute to organizational performance with respect to Environmental Protection Policies; 2) actions taken by companies / organizations to benefit environmental sustainability.

PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIORS IN THE INDUSTRIAL SECTOR can be voluntary, but above all IN-ROLE or work related, that is, inherent in the role performed at the managerial, operational and, in both cases, decision-making levels, where the perception of risk clashes both with traditional biases and with perceptual distortions of consequences that are not linked to the HERE and NOW, but from the potentially distant in time and space and where the value component (a continuum between “ethics” and “consequentialists” who reason in terms of gains and losses between performing and omitting an act) plays a fundamental role in guiding communication campaigns and awareness-raising and training interventions.

A new and fundamental behavioral variable emerges, consisting of mear-miss and unsafe environmental conditions, linked to the perception of its precursors: the so-called weak environmental signals or events/information that are not at first glance evident, but which can be an alert for potential future accidents, detected by critically positioned figures). In the context of pro-environmental behaviors (but not only), actions appear to be guided by a triad of objectives:

• Hedonic “to feel better right now” «doing this is more comfortable and comfortable» (Shortcut)

• Profit “to safeguard and improve one's resources” - «doing this is cheaper» (is it convenient for me?)

• Normative “to act appropriately” for the group - Doing this is good for my colleagues and other people (ethical).

Only one of the three is temporarily focal: therefore it has greater influence on decisions (actions or omissions)

Regulatory objectives are the most stable basis for fostering pro-environmental behaviour and there are techniques and ways of stabilising them

From the studies and research conducted by AR19 with the University of Padua and Eni, it seems to emerge that as the role and frequency of work in the field increase, the following seems to emerge:

• a decrease in the perception of environmental aspects in terms of sharing, awareness raising and motivation;

• a decrease in awareness of the importance of events with a potential environmental impact;

• a decrease in responsiveness in the management of environmental accidents.

Important information for taking action on Role Modeling, communication and training

AR19 devised a 7stepsMethod© model to measure Pro-Environmental and Pro-Sustainability Culture and prepared an approach for co-creating KPIs predictive of the success of actions taken in a sustainability road map

The case studies of AR19 suggest how the effect of an Environmental Culture and Sustainability programme implemented by organisations can have broad economic, social and productive repercussions, with benefits on the quality of the environment and the well-being of people

Eni – Monica Musicanti

The new challenges of the Environmental Culture of an energy company in full strategic transition like Eni were discussed, while also characterized by an internal path of profound renewal in terms of Environmental Culture integrated with the promotion of a medium-term business strategy.

The research project environmental weak rye, the lines of intervention on people and the important tools based on the formulation of 4 principles and 6 rules for the environment, up to the involvement of strategic contractists, were presented.

University of Padua – Department of General Psychology – Elena Carbone

The BE-GREE research project, already recognized by the prestigious national PA Sustainable Award, was developed from research initiated by a collaboration between AR19, Eni, and the University of Padua. This area of study has been little explored to date and has identified specific determinants that contribute to guiding pro-environmental and pro-sustainability behaviors: the company's management of environmental aspects, individual worker characteristics, and work-related characteristics, interpreted with respect to behavioral variables such as weak signals, environmental near misses, and environmental unsafe conditions.

It emerges that there are several individual and organizational characteristics that influence the adoption of pro-environmental behaviors in the workplace related to preventing environmental impacts and improving the sustainability of processes and products (Katz et al., 2022), even in an industrial context linked to the energy sector. The presence of tools and support from the organization (e.g., instructions/procedures, training) encourages the identification and management of anomalous and environmentally risky situations, with a preventative perspective. The stews suggest that developing training/awareness-raising interventions that, by also addressing key individual characteristics, promote greater environmental awareness in workers.

Renantis (ex-Falck Renewables) – Alessia Galbiati

A world-leading company in the field of renewable energy production, it presented its journey of Coherence, a concrete commitment, enriched by the study on “managerial” behaviors that could accelerate the implementation of sustainability policies, with a presentation of the study conducted with the University of Padua.

It emerges that:

• The sustainability approach must be rooted at all levels of the company (sustainability culture)

• E’ extremely powerful to implement sustainable projects and be consistent with ourselves

• Real engagement with all employees and stakeholders is the best sponsor of your brand.

• It is more than motivated and characterized by a return on investment to study the motivations that push us to improve pro-environmental behaviors

Webuild – Margherita Santamicone

Pro-environmental behaviors in the construction sector were discussed: the systemic challenge of innovating in a competitive and constantly changing context.

This challenge highlights the strategic value and challenge of involving stakeholders in Environmental Culture throughout the entire value chain of a sales assistant (works-life-cycle & Stakeholders), in order to recognize their benefit and investment throughout the value chain (from the tender to the end of the work's life). This commitment is being highlighted in the development of the concept of an efficient and low-carbon construction site.

Cariplo Foundation – Elena Jachia

Extraordinary synergies between foundations and profit-making companies were presented as a new lever for concrete sustainability interventions.

Focus on examples of tools that seek to spread more sustainable behavior and promote the Foundation's collaboration with profit companies and between the third sector, PA, and profit companies:

- Call to Action: «Join Nature» (ongoing)

- Call: «Plastic Challenge. Challenge to single-use plastics» (2019-20)

An extraordinary showcase of potential sustainability projects has been presented, related to the promotion of pro-environmental behaviors, accessible to companies that intend to co-finance and incorporate them into their social responsibility and sustainability strategies, relating to numerous thematic areas (school, natural resources, energy, climate, agriculture, sustainable local development, capacity building, inland areas).

Through, for example, Join Nature the Foundation intends to

- Promote collaboration with private profit companies to jointly finance the implementation of interventions to protect the biodiversity of our reference territory

- Increase the activities carried out by Fondazione Cariplo in partnership, involving the profit world on environmental sustainability issues

- Raise awareness among companies about the possibility of implementing natural capital interventions under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

CONCLUSIONS

- Environmental Culture is measurable

- Pro-environmental behaviors are favored by organizational and individual determinants

- If work-related, they accelerate sustainability policies, reduce risk and enhance performance

- EVOLUTIONARY training paths, governance and communication strategies can be developed

- Sustainability pathway as an organizational and behavioral compass

- Involvement of stakeholders in Environmental Culture throughout a sales assistant's value chain

- Formidable union between foundations and the profit world on sustainability initiatives

The next appointment is in 1 year to share the practical results in exploring this brand new frontier!