Abstract:

This paper analyses the extent to which the level of education both formal, as the graduation level, and informal, as the common knowledge on the impact of services and equipment on the environment, can explain the actions undertaken by the population towards environmental protection. Other factors like the technology usage and the sociodemographic features are also taken into account. For this purpose, we have considered three types of actions toward sustainability the population can be most frequently and easier involved in: recycling, volunteering, and limiting the consumption of the utilities.

The data comes from a large representative survey conducted in 2023 amongst Romanian individuals in order to research the attitudes and perceptions of the sustainability of electronic communications services. The survey included several topics that we have further delved into in order to form an appropriate breakdown in terms of objectives and scale type.

The data has been used to develop a Partial least square-Structural equation model (PLS-SEM) in Smart PLS 4 software using several initial proxy variables: technology usage, technology usefulness, time spent on technology, knowledge of impact, impact evaluation, income, education, gender, residence and age. The model includes both formative and reflective constructs and, as result of the initial assessment, it has been further refined by excluding the less relevant variables related to the time spent on technology and the residence.

We have found out that our revised model explains to a good extend (22%) the variance in taking sustainable actions in the case of the Romanian population. The most relevant to the environmental protection activities is the construct related to knowledge and awareness on the impact of electronic communications (covering the knowledge regarding electronic communications impact on the environment in aspects such as used equipment, electricity consumption and duration of service consumption). Internet usage and technology usefulness had positive impacts on undertaking sustainable actions as well. The other variables, education included, have much lower path coefficients. Two out of the three reflective indicators calculated for the variable related to sustainable actions have positive path coefficients greater than 0.5, the exception being the actions related to volunteering; therefore, the sustainable actions are appropriately reflected by the chosen indicators.

Our findings indicate that informal knowledge regarding the impacts of technology, as opposed to formal education, significantly influences the adoption of behaviors conducive to sustainable development.

Keywords:

Knowledge, education, technology usage, sustainable actions.