Overcoming the barriers to pro-environmental behaviors in the workplace: A systematic review

The environmental performance of organizations largely depends on the voluntary participation of employees in greening activities. Workers in any organization can voluntarily perform numerous environmental behaviors, such as recycling, carpooling, or using video-conferencing rather than travelling. Yet, in many organizations, these behaviors remain limited and the obstacles to their development have not been the object of specific studies. Pro-environmental behaviors are not monolithic and may vary considerably according to the degree of discretion involved. The objective of this paper is to analyze, through a systematic review of the empirical literature on pro-environmental behaviors in the workplace, the obstacles to green actions for employees and how such barriers might be overcome. The discretionary nature of certain behaviors is questioned and different categories of pro-environmental individual conduct are proposed. The paper sheds more light on the personal and organizational barriers to voluntary pro-environmental behaviors: while the former are associated with both intentions and actions, the latter have so far been found to primarily affect actual behaviors. Suggestions for future research and practical implications for managers are also proposed.