The Environmental Impact of Individual Behavior: Self-Assessment Versus the Ecological Footprint

© 2017, The Author(s) 2017. Are individuals able to self-assess the environmental impact of their behavior? To answer this question, we first analyze the different behavioral determinants of the ecological footprint (EF), an often used measure of an individual’s environmental impact. Second, we compare the individuals’ EF with self-assessments of their own environmental impact (self-assessed environmental sustainability [SAES]). We use survey data from Belgium and find that people are largely unaware of the environmental impact they have, as the correlation between the EF and the SAES is small. Finally, we find that SAES reflects, to a large extent, individuals’ attitudes toward the environment, whereas the EF is mainly explained by sociodemographic characteristics.

Publication year:2018

BOF-keylabel:yes

IOF-keylabel:yes

BOF-publication weight:3

CSS-citation score:2

Authors from:Higher Education