Diverse forms of environmental problems pose a serious threat to the natural environment. Environmental sustainability is the foremost topic in the contemporary tourism and hospitality industry. Environmentally-sustainable consumer behavior is an important aspect of environmental protection, which eventually benefits the society. In order to better understand environmentally-sustainable consumption and promote environmentally responsible consumer behavior, this research provides a sound conceptualization of environmentally-sustainable consumer behavior, and presents a systematic review and perspective on theories (theory of reasoned action, norm activation theory, theory of planned behavior, model of goal-directed behavior, and value-belief-norm theory) established in tourism and environmental psychology. In addition, this study introduces the essential drivers of environmentally-sustainable consumer behavior (green image, pro-environmental behavior in everyday life, environmental knowledge, green product attachment, descriptive social norm, anticipated pride and guilt, environmental corporate social responsibility, perceived effectiveness, connectedness to nature, and green value). Lastly, this paper provides the values of the latest studies on the special issue of environmental sustainability and consumer behavior in tourism and hospitality. This study as an introductory paper along with other articles in this special section help enable a collaboration platform across tourism and hospitality fields in pursuit of universal goals for promoting pro-environmental consumption and environmental sustainability.
Introduction
Diverse problems (e.g. greenhouse effect, air/water/soil pollution, extinction/loss of species, and exhaustion of natural resources) pose a serious threat to the environment and its sustainability (Wang et al., 2020; Xu et al., 2020). The problems are mostly relevant to environmentally irresponsible human behaviors (Hopkins, 2020; Steg & Vlek, 2009; Xu et al., 2020; Wu et al., 2020). Researchers agree that the problematic issues can be therefore managed and resolved by correcting the human behaviors to be an environmentally-sustainable way (Han, 2020; Steg & Vlek, 2009). Particularly, the change of individualsā consumption behaviors (approaching, buying, and consuming the products in a pro-environmental manner) is considered to be an important requisite for environmental sustainability (Halder et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020).
Therefore, for the last few decades, eliciting environmentally-sustainable consumer behavior has been a vital topic that has an increasing attention in the consumer marketplace and academia (Dong et al., 2020; Garvey & Bolton, 2017). Environmentally-sustainable consumer behavior whose alternative term is environmentally-responsible consumer behavior is hard to pin down when defining it, but the term is broadly utilized and employed as an umbrella concept that highlights an individualās various actions saving natural resources (e.g. water, energy), reducing environmental harm (e.g. waste decrease), meeting the green needs of society, and improving his/her life quality (Bridges & Wilhelm, 2008; Dong et al., 2020; Han, 2020). Similarly, according to Krajhanzl (2010), āpro-environmental behavior is such behavior which is generally (or according to knowledge of environmental science) judged in the context of the considered society as a protective way of environmental behavior or a tribute to the healthy environmentā (p. 252). Therefore, such terms as environmentally responsible behaviors (Kaiser et al., 1999), environmentally sustainable behaviors (Clayton & Myers, 2009), environment-protective/preserving behaviors (Krajhanzl, 2010), ecological behaviors (Kaiser et al., 1999), and green behaviors (Han, 2020) are often utilized as equivalents for pro-environmental behaviors. Environmentally-sustainable consumer behavior is irrefutably an important facet of pro-social consumption activities (Black & Cherrier, 2010; Halder et al., 2020), which eventually benefits the environment and the entire society (Park et al., 2018; Steg & Vlek, 2009).
Particularly, sustainable consumption is becoming an emerging issue in tourism and hospitality (Kiatkawsin & Han, 2017; Wang et al., 2020). As an increasing number of people in the marketplace recognize that many serious environmental deteriorations are rooted in tourism activities/development (Trang et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2020), the issue of eco-friendly consumption and sustainable product development is becoming more important than ever in the contemporary tourism and hospitality industry. Nowadays, customers in this sector increasingly demand green products (e.g. environmentally responsible hotels, restaurants, cruises, airlines, destinations, resorts, conventions, casinos) and often show a willingness for sustainable consumption (Chen et al., 2012; Ramkissoon et al., 2013; Trang et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2018). Due to this demand and eco-conscious market environment, many tourism and hospitality companies are increasingly showing the tendency to become pro-active in greening their operations and products (Afifah & Asnan, 2015; Hopkins, 2020; Lee et al., 2013). Concurrently, tourism and hospitality customers are becoming acquainted with the inevitability of environmentally-sustainable behaviors in their product-consumption situations as well as in their everyday life (Choi et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2018; Xu et al., 2020).
The present research aims to enrich the extant tourism and hospitality literature in sustainable consumption and purchase behaviors by filling the gaps described subsequently. While scholars in environmental behavior and consumer behavior have described environmentally-sustainable consumer behavior (Bridges & Wilhelm, 2008; Chan, 2001; Joshi & Rahman, 2015), it has not been soundly conceptualized in the tourism and hospitality sector. In addition, although considerable efforts on applying and expanding existing theories in social/environmental psychology have been made (Choi et al., 2015; Han, 2015; Young et al., 2020), the extended discussions on environmentally-sustainable consumer behavior and its related theories are lacking. Moreover, comprehending the drivers of sustainable behavior is undoubtedly crucial to design effective strategies to substantially minimize the negative environmental impacts of tourism (Ramkissoon et al., 2013; Xu et al., 2020). Yet, the thorough reviews and extensive discussions about key concepts that induce pro-environmental consumer behavior in tourism and hospitality have not been sufficiently provided.
This research discusses the concept of environmentally-sustainable consumer behavior and its merits for the environment. In addition, this paper provides a systematic review and perspective on social psychology and environmental psychology theories that are popular and often used for explicating pro-environmental behaviors among consumers. This research also discusses main variables that drive environmentally-sustainable consumer behavior and provides the conceptualization of the variables. Subsequently, in the last section, this paper introduces nine papers included in the special issue of āSustainability and consumer behaviorā and discusses the value of the papers.
