Carbon Literacy Interventions in Business Education: Assessing Students’Attitudes and Performance before and after Training

Authors

  • Safaa Shaaban *

    Business Department, The Faculty of Business Administration, Economics & Political Science, The British University in Egypt, Cairo 11837, Egypt
  • Hadia FakhrEldin

    Business Department, The Faculty of Business Administration, Economics & Political Science, The British University in Egypt, Cairo 11837, Egypt

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55121/jele.v1i2.754

Keywords:

Carbon Literacy, Attitudes, Sustainability Education, Experiential Learning, Higher Education, Leadership

Abstract

As the urgency for addressing climate change intensifies, the integration of carbon literacy into business education emerges as a pivotal strategy for cultivating environmentally conscious business students. This study examines the impact of carbon literacy programs on business students, focusing on how such programs influence their attitudes and behaviors toward sustainability. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research analyzes pre and post surveys, alongside qualitative focuses groups interviews, to gauge shifts in understanding and personal commitment to carbon reduction practices. The survey applied the scale adapted form included seventeen items, the sample was 180 students in honor degree (Last year in business school). The findings revealed that exposure to carbon literacy not only enhanced knowledge about environmental issues but also fostered a significant transformation in students' attitudes towards sustainability, leading to initiative-taking behavioral changes. Furthermore, this study highlights the potential of carbon literacy education to instill a sense of responsibility and empowerment among future business leaders, equipping them with the skills needed to make informed decisions that prioritize environmental stewardship in their professional endeavors. This study underscores the necessity of integrating carbon literacy into business curricula to better prepare students to tackle the challenges of climate change in their future careers. A key limitation of this study is the persistent challenge of translating positive attitudes into actual behavioral change among young individuals, particularly university students.

References

[1] Timm, J.-M., Barth, M., 2020. Making Education for Sustainable Development Happen in Elementary Schools: The Role of Teachers. Environmental Education Research. 27(1), 50–66. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2020.1813256

[2] Seatter, C.S., Ceulemans, K., 2018. Teaching Sustainability in Higher Education: Pedagogical Styles that Make a Difference. Canadian Journal of Higher Education. 47(2), 47–70. DOI: https://doi.org/10.47678/cjhe.v47i2.186284

[3] Stein, S., 2023. Universities Confronting Climate Change: Beyond Sustainable Development and Solutionism. Higher Education. 87, 165–183. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-023-00999-w

[4] Cebrián, G., Junyent, M., 2015. Competencies in Education for Sustainable Development: Exploring the Student Teachers’ Views. Sustainability. 7(3), 2768–2786. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su7032768

[5] Ram, S.A., MacLean, H.L., Tihanyi, D., et al., 2023. The Complex Relationship Between Carbon Literacy and Pro-Environmental Actions Among Engineering Students. Heliyon. 9(11), e20634. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20634

[6] Kolenatý, M., Kroufek, R., Činčera, J., 2022. What Triggers Climate Action: The Impact of a Climate Change Education Program on Students’ Climate Literacy and Their Willingness to Act. Sustainability. 14(16), 10365. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su141610365

[7] Schleich, J., Dütschke, E., Kanberger, E., et al., 2024. On the Relationship Between Individual Carbon Literacy and Carbon Footprint Components. Ecological Economics. 218, 108100. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.108100

[8] Srkoc, M.M.M., Pontoppidan, C.A., Molthan-Hill, P., 2021. Exploring Carbon Education for All: The Carbon Literacy Project. In: Lackner, M., Sajjadi, B., Chen, WY. (Eds.). Handbook of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation. Springer: New York, NY, USA. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6431-0_154-1

[9] Bengtsson, S.L., 2022. Critical Education for Sustainable Development: Exploring the Conception of Criticality in the Context of Global and Vietnamese Policy Discourse. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education. 54(5), 839–856. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2022.2110841

[10] CBS, 2020. CBS PRME, Responsible Management Education in Focus Report Series. Available from: https://www.cbs.dk/node/512562 (cited 20 May 2024).

[11] King, A.K., Lenox, M.J., 2000. Industry Self-Regulation Without Sanctions: The Chemical Industry's Responsible Care Program. The Academy of Management Journal. 43(4), 698–716.

[12] Tapia Granados, J., Spach, C., 2019. Policies to Reduce CO2 Emissions: Fallacies and Evidence from the United States and California. Environmental Science & Policy. 94, 262–266.

[13] Tseng, S.-C., Hung, S.-W., 2014. A Strategic Decision-Making Model Considering the Social Costs of Carbon Dioxide Emissions for Sustainable Supply Chain Management. Journal of Environmental Management. 133, 315–322.

[14] Kim, D., Kim, K.-T., Park, Y.-K., 2020. A Comparative Study on the Reduction Effect in Greenhouse Gas Emissions Between the Combined Heat and Power Plant and Boiler. Sustainability. 12(12), 5144.

[15] Lang, S., Engelmann, B., Schiffler, A., et al., 2024. A Simplified Machine Learning Product Carbon Footprint Evaluation Tool. Clean Environmental Systems. 13, 100187.

[16] Agbelusi, J., Arowosegbe, O.B., Alomaja, O.A., et al., 2024. Strategies for Minimizing Carbon Footprint in the Agricultural Supply Chain: Leveraging Sustainable Practices and Emerging Technologies. World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews. 23(3), 2625–2646.

[17] Chen, X., Benjaafar, S., Elomr, A., 2019. On the Effectiveness of Emission Penalties in Decentralized Supply Chains. European Journal of Operational Research. 274(3), 1155–1167.

[18] Lou, H., Xiaoxin, Z., Dehua, Z., 2022. What Influences Urban Residents’ Intention to Sort Waste?: Introducing Taoist Cultural Values Into TPB. Journal of Cleaner Production. 371, 133540. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.133540

[19] Delistavrou, A., Tilikidou, I.C., 2022. Consumers’ Intentions to Buy Cosmetics and Detergents With Ingredients Made From Recycled CO2. Sustainability. 14(23), 16069.

[20] Alenzi, M.A.S., Jaaffar, A.H., Khudari, M., 2023. The Effect of GHRM on the Sustainable Performance of Private Companies in Qatar. International Journal of Management and Sustainability. 12(3), 289–300.

[21] Ringim, K.J., Reni, A., 2019. Mediating Effect of Social Media on the Consumer Buying Behaviour of Cosmetic Products. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Accounting, Management and Economics 2018 (ICAME 2018), Makassar, Indonesia, 4–5 November 2018; pp. 291–308. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2991/icame-18.2019.33

[22] Farah, M.F., Newman, A.J., 2010. Exploring Consumer Boycott Intelligence Using a Socio-Cognitive Approach. Journal of Business Research. 63(4), 347–355. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2009.03.019

[23] Yan, X., Kim, C., Kim, J., et al., 2024. Do Many Options Result in Listening to Oneself or Others During Boycott Campaigns? Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics. 37(1), 59–79. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-09-2023-0931

[24] Xie, J.-B., Fu, J.-X., Liu, S.-Y., et al., 2020. Assessments of Carbon Footprint and Energy Analysis of Three Wind Farms. Journal of Cleaner Production. 254, 120159.

[25] Robinson, M.A., Leigh, J.S.A., 2025. Peeling the (Experiential) Onion: A Review of the Interconnected Layers of Research on Experiential Learning in Management Learning Between 2010 and 2024. Management Learning. 56(1), 8–21.

[26] Mertayasa, I.K., Mitro, Sumarni, N., et al., 2024. A Literature Review: The Impact of Experiential Learning on Developing Students' Critical Thinking Skills in Indonesia. 3(1), 54–65. DOI: https://doi.org/10.46328/ijces.104

[27] Byram, M., 1997. Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence. Multilingual Matters: Clevendon, UK.

[28] Araújo, M., Marques, J.P., Aoki, G., et al., 2024. What is New in Boron Nutrition? Case Study on African Mahogany Leaf Anatomy. Scientia Agricola. 81. Available from: https://www.scielo.br/j/sa/a/pFM6G8pYzv9qwMX7LxZWsJr/?format=html&lang=en

[29] Wang, H., Wang, C., Chen, Z., et al., 2025. Impact of AI-Agent-Supported Collaborative Learning on the Learning Outcomes of University Programming Courses. Education and Information Technologies. 30, 17717–17749.

[30] Crossan, M., 2003. Chris Argyris and Donald Schon's Organizational Learning: There is No Silver Bullet. Academy of Management Executive. 17, 38–39. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/AME.2003.10025187

[31] Avby, G., 2022. An Integrative Learning Approach: Combining Improvement Methods and Ambidexterity. The Learning Organization: An International Journal. 29(4), 325–340. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/TLO-10-2021-0127

[32] Lukic, D., 2022. What Are Organisations Even There For? A Call for Deeper Double-Loop Learning. The Learning Organization: An International Journal. 29(4), 408–414. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/TLO-05-2022-284

[33] Tolppanen, S., Kang, J., 2020. The Effect of Values on Carbon Footprint and Attitudes Towards Pro-Environmental Behavior. Journal of Cleaner Production. 282, 124524. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124524

[34] Braun, V., Clarke, V., 2006. Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology. 3(2), 77–101. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

[35] Hair Jr., J.F., Black, W.C., Babin, B.J., et al., 2016. Multivariate Data Analysis. Pearson Prentice-Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA.

[36] Ajzen, I., 1991. The Theory of Planned Behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 50(2), 179–211. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T

[37] Kolb, D.A., 1984. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA.

[38] Hosmer Jr., D.W., Lemeshow, S., Sturdivant, R.X., 2013. Applied Logistic Regression, 3rd ed. Wiley: Hoboken, NJ, USA.

Downloads

How to Cite

Shaaban, S., & FakhrEldin, H. (2025). Carbon Literacy Interventions in Business Education: Assessing Students’Attitudes and Performance before and after Training. Journal of Education and Learning Environments, 1(2), 18–33. https://doi.org/10.55121/jele.v1i2.754

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 2 (December 2025): In Progress

Section

Article