Are Greeks knowledgeable enough about environmental issues?

Abstract

The focus of this paper is the examination of Consumers’ Environmental Knowledge (CEK). A scale to measure CEK has been constructed and the development procedure is presented. The procedure provided a 27-item, 3-choice construct, measured on a ‘Right-Wrong’ basis that indicated accepted level of reliability. In addition the ability of CEK to influence the Pro-environmental Purchasing Behaviour was tested in a household survey in Thessaloniki Greece. The results indicated that the more knowledgeable consumers are younger, better educated and hold relatively higher incomes, while house-persons were found less knowledgeable than their counterparts. The positive, moderate correlation coefficient between knowledge and behaviour indicated that at least to an extent people better informed about environmental issues were more likely to act in favour of the environment when making their purchasing choices.