Environmental Sustainability through Determinism the Level of Environmental Awareness, Knowledge and Behavior among Business Graduates

The study aims to examine the relationship between demographic factors such as gender, income and occupation with the environmental awareness, knowledge and behavior. Data was collected through self administrated questionnaires from students of business studies of leading business schools in Lahore. The data were analyzed through using t-statistic test and ANOVA to analyze the relationships and their effect of different demographic factors on the environmental awareness, knowledge and behavior. The result of this survey shows that the students with high income level are more environmentally knowledge able from those students whose income is less. Parents’ occupation has significant impact on the overall environmental awareness. The research implications and need of future studies are also present in the study.


INTRODUCTION
Pakistan is experiencing high population and urbanization. Ineffective use of natural resources had a negative impact on the socioeconomic development. In order to protect the natural environment and make sustainable development there is a need of protection and effective use of natural resources of earth (Nadeem and Hameed, 2008). The adverse impact of environmental conditions on global climate has increased the vulnerability of the country thus leading to adopt measures that mitigate the impact of climate change (Khan, 2003).
Many researchers have conducted studies on the level of awareness, knowledge and behavior of students (Moseley et al., 2003;Knapp, 1996;Zimmermann, 1996) of both parents and students (Rovira, 2000;Musser and Diamond, 1999) and in younger's (Cottrell, 2003;Arcury and Christianson, 1993). Previous studies of many researchers concluded that people might have a different level of understanding of changing environment conditions; "a more holistic understanding of climate change and that focusing on public knowledge about the science of climate change might therefore lead to misconceptions of public understanding" (Bulkeley, 2000). On the other hand some researchers have suggested that lack of environmental knowledge probably is not a main cause of concern and therefore increasing awareness level among the consumers is not translating into the actual behavior due to various "cognitive and structura" barriers (Bulkeley, 2000;Dunlap, 1998). Previous researches had adopted socio-economic model to predict the changing in the commitment than just focusing on the knowledge (Jaeger et al., 1993).
Global environmental problems, such as climate change conditions, sustainable issues of managing water and energy resources and pollution emission from business activities, have become more complex and require society's attention. There are many ways and "one way to educate businesses students about environmental and sustainability issues through the business school curriculum" (Johannsdottir, 2009). To protect the natural environment students should educated about the dearth and hazardous effect of environmental problems on their daily lives, this does not require enhancing their knowledge but must developed awareness and commitment to solve these problems. The awareness concept is ultimately a stimuli and driving force to acquire knowledge and "this degree of environmental awareness involves a personal commitment to work to solve Environmental problems" (Madsen, 1996). Further underlining and categorized the awareness into three layers as to achieve it through recognizes problem, factual knowledge and commitment towards environmental problem (Madsen, 1996). Awareness and knowledge of environmental problem plays an important role in developing the responsible behavior (Athman and Monroe, 2000). Johannsdottir (2009) emphasized that the business courses and knowledge communicated in business school at the Institute of higher education can fight against climate change. Specifically, business schools can play an influential role in spreading the environmental literacy among their students (Probert, 2002). The study of Lidgren et al. (2006) declares that "the state of the world is not the work of ignorant people, but rather the opposite, the result of work made by people with BAs, BSs, MBAs and PhDs". If the business students are not conscious about the current environmental problems, it is clear that in future they may not likely to act as environmentally responsible citizens. Among the other players of the society, students have an important and strategic role to play to meet the needs of our future generations.
Whereas the study of Hernandez and Monroe (2000) suggested that these factors are not affecting behavior outcome. Development and modification of environmental behavior has been focused of many studies. Duerden and Wit (2010) indicated that ultimate goal of the environmental awareness should be the promotion of the pro-environmental behavior. Environmental issue has been studied by many researchers, academicians and many among them have particularly focused the university students for example (Zsoka et al., 2012;Chuanhuia and Hanweib, 2011;Moody et al., 2005;Kilbourne and Polonsky, 2005;Holt, 2003;Wolfe, 2001).
The purpose of university was to give utmost services to society through producing talented pool of students to serve the community (Newman, 1959). According to Corcoran and Wals (2004) "Universities increasingly realize that their environmental impact is tremendous, not only in terms of the energy they use and the waste they generate, but perhaps first and foremost in the way they equip their graduates in dealing with sustainability issues in both their personal and professional lives." According to the Sharon and Wright (2006) "The modern university has transcended this conceptualization of the institution to a broader purpose of educating and preparing students for an active life and social responsibility in the world".
According to the study of Bradley et al. (1999) indicate that there is no significance difference between male and female students with their environmental awareness but attitude towards environmental issues differ significantly between gender. Environmental awareness is interconnected with the environmental attitude, adults particularly university students are more aware of the environmental problems (Schusler and Krasny, 2010). Many previous studies irrespective of geographic and cultural differences, supported the argument that a strong gender preference in environmental awareness, knowledge and attitude. This has been ascribed many female within the household likelihood of engaging in pro-environmentally behavior (Milfont and Duckitt, 2004) Blocker and Douglas (1997) found no significant difference exist between male and female in pro-environmental behavior and concern. A good number of adequate research showed that Female have very strong significant environmental behavior than the male. Similarly women are found very participative proactively (Zelezny et al., 2000).
The background of the socio-economic status in mainly depends on the social structure status of individually in the society and is an expression which differentiates the individual status in the society with respect to the family income, educational level and occupation status (Saifi and Mehmood, 2011). The combination of economic and social status of individual is an assessed of socioeconomic status formed on the basis of family income, education and occupation (Parson et al., 2001). Generally, Socioeconomic Status (SES) include, marital status, parents education, income, parental profession and these are referred in the umbrella of demographic factors (Ballatine, 1993).
The effect of socioeconomic factors played significant role on individual behavior and most of time it is calculated through level of parent's education, occupation, income and facilities used individually and collectively. Parents' income has positive correlation with the students' attitude (Parson et al., 2001). Components of the social status (income, education and occupation) positively correlate with the parent's education, occupation and income (Goks et al., 2002). Mostly, high-income class claim to be more aware about environmental problems (Herrera, 1992) and income has also some inverse relation with the environmental behavior (McMillan et al., 1997). Similarly a positive relation is exist in the level of education and environmental behavior, this could be possible because of the high income class individual exhibit more environmental behavior as they have many opportunities to attain high level of education and attain a socially acceptable status in society (Charles and Kate, 2012).
The occupation had significant effect on the environmental knowledge and attitude (Charles and Kate, 2012). This contradict to the study of (Herrera, 1992) argued that there is no significance association in attainment of a professional occupation with the environmental awareness and knowledge. Socio demographic factors have significant effect on environmental awareness level and knowledge (Xiao and Dunlap, 2007). Some other factors like income, education attainment and occupation are positively correlated with environmentalism. Female not married with high level of education and family income are considered more inclined towards the environmental orientation (Xiao and Dunlap, 2007).
The aim of this research was to investigate the relationships between the male and female towards environmental awareness, knowledge and behavior. In this study our main focus was to determine the effect of socio-economic status of parents on the students' environmental awareness knowledge and behavior. The main objective of the research was to determine that how demographic factors contribute to the environmental awareness, knowledge about its significance and behavior of university students towards environmental issues.
There are many environmental problems in Pakistan, which need consideration at all level to address these problems, young generation particularly students of universities should be aware of environment problems. Institutes of higher education have very important responsibility and task in this regard (Fernandez-Manzanal et al., 2007). There have been few studies on the awareness on the environmental issues and measuring awareness among the young generations particularly among undergraduate and postgraduate level at higher education institutions with context to the socioeconomic status particularly in Pakistan. Environment awareness and knowledge of its hazardous effect on the human species is important for all the members of the society. From the above discussion the research questions are formulated: How demographic factors influence environmental awareness of university students? Which demographic factor has strongest impact on environmental awareness on university students?
Peoples at all level in their capacity need to play their part individually and collectively to save the environment. Environmental issues are of vital importance not only for parents and teachers, but also for the students. It is generally perceived that the students naturally have idea how to protect the natural environment. The essential steps in forming a good understanding towards environmental concerns should be taken by students' parents and teachers. However for this study the following hypotheses are developed: Hypothesis 1: There is no significant difference between male and female in their environmental awareness and behavior. Hypothesis 2: There is no significant effect of parents' income on students on the environmental awareness, knowledge and behavior. Hypothesis 3: There is no significant effect of parents' occupation on students on the environmental awareness, knowledge and behavior.

ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS AND BEHAVIOR
In Pakistan political and socioeconomic conditions from the last 30 years have had an impact on the behaviors of the citizens (Khan, 2003). Behavior towards the environment may vary based on the demographic factor such as age, gender and socioeconomic characteristics. The term awareness can be defined as level of knowledge gained through one's own understanding or something felt and sensed. A variety of different environmental issues exist as a result of human activities and implementation of new technologies. Understandings of hazardous effects of different environmental problems are fore most important for the policy makers, so that they can respond to the potential threats of environmental problems in a better way by developing comprehensive solutions. Individuals and society should understand different environmental issues such as, water and air pollution, dust deposition, solid waste management, noise etc and their effect on the human life and natural resources (Ziadat, 2010).
From the last three decades, industrialized countries have realized the need to take precautions and mitigation measures nationally and internationally. In this course of action environmental education programs have become essentially necessary to protect global environment, which can facilitate and enhance decision making, different choices of action and behavior development to promote the environmentally friendly way of life (Takala, 1991). World Commission on Environment and Development published a report on "Our Common Future" in 1987 concluded with these suggestions "governments should implement strategies about how to best reduce the impact of human activities on the environment for future generations" (The Bruntland Report, 1987).

Improving environmental awareness:
The education related to environment promotes a "variety of outcomes not directly related to environmentally responsible behaviors, in addition to impacts on environmental attitudes, knowledge, skills and behaviors" (Schusler and Krasny, 2010). The research confirmed that increased knowledge about the environment positively promotes the attitudes (Arcury, 1990). A number of researchers reported that students who exposed to the environmental education in high and senior high school showed and demonstrated a concern for environmental issues and an increased awareness of environmental problems (Jordan et al., 1986). Jianguo (2004) stated that ''The environmental awareness and environmental quality are important indicators to judge how civilized a nation or race is". Young (2000) indicated that public awareness plays a significant role to strengthen sustainable development of any nation and for this educational programs have become an essential tool in formation of solutions of environmental problems. Hindrance in development particularly for the people in the third world countries needs environmental education to enhance the awareness of its significance. Jaus (1984) "stated that if the students receive more instruction at these early ages on environmental education, the more positive these students' attitudes will be toward the environment". On the other hand the research findings of (Bradley et al., 1999) suggest that knowledge and behavior were positively correlated and further demonstrated that increased knowledge about the environmental issues may help develop and improve responsible behavior. Understanding the differences of behavior and attitudes among the Nations is important determinant to protect world's common problem. Mutual collaboration across the world is necessary to improve environmental conditions of this planet (Shields and Zeng, 2012).
Demographic variable and relationships with environmental awareness: In adult girls, a positive tendency was observed showing high relationship with the environmental behavior (Ray and Lovejoy, 2003). Boehnke et al. (1986) observed a general effect of gender that found boys have more inclination towards adopting the responsible behavior than girls, while (Crandall et al., 1965) found the same as opposite studies in a USA sample. Further reported that a negative relation of adults with the obtaining the higher education. Education is inconsistent with the environmental behavior (Milfont and Duckitt, 2004) and negative relationship exists with increasing education level in adults (Johnson et al., 2002). Furthermore the environment educations must begin at an early stage of children education, as its effectiveness and importance has been recognized by many researchers (Gist, 1998).
Some scholars demonstrated that individuals with greater education and high socio-economic status are less likely to perceive environmental issue as problem for human as a serious risks (O'Connor et al., 1999). On the other hand researchers have noted that there is significant difference in men and women in consideration and evaluation of the environmental problems (Agarwal, 1992). Many researchers have conducted studies on the assessment of environmental attitude and behavior in USA, concluded that women express more concern about environment than do the men (Bord et al., 1998). Agarwal (1992) expressed class gender effects of environmental concern and explained as poor women showed more concern over the environmental effect as compared with their counterpart men.
Wealth is negatively correlated and family influences are positively correlated with the environmental behavior. Environmental and preservation behavior of adults have a strong relationship with the parents' socio-economic status (Milfont, 2009). Research indicated that the women in the Middle East are more environmental consciousness than the male, it could be possible for number of reason because women are usually engaged in day to day child care activities and cleaning and maintenance of the house garbage (Ziadat, 2010).
Education plays a significant role in raising the awareness related to the environmental problems. The graduate and post graduate students of the university are well aware about the environmental problems and showed more tendencies towards protecting the natural resources of the earth (Ziadat, 2010). Environmental awareness affected differently in gender, the young male and female awareness positively correlated with the environmental knowledge and behavior as compared with the older age people (Ziadat, 2010). In addition to this younger have more positive behavior towards the environmental issues as compared with the older citizens' (Kellstedt et al., 2008). The study of Schultz (2000) has found differences in environmental behavior and conduct in females and males. In the same way Gonzalez and Amerigo (2000) show that male students of business studies have least concern towards the environmental issues than their counterpart female students.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The population for this study was consisted of the students from leading business schools from Lahore. The demographics information was included that many previous studies have determined including age, education, parents income, parent occupation. These demographics factors have been used by many researchers in determinants of environmental awareness, behavior and knowledge (Buttel and Fllin, 1976). The purpose of choosing students of university for this study is that today's students is the policy maker of the future thus indicating future trends of the country.
The principal data was collected through a structured 400 survey questionnaires. The questionnaires were designed based on the previous studies. The survey was conducted during the spring session in May and June through structured questionnaires from leading business schools of Lahore. These leading institutes are ranked annually by Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC, 2013 To meet the objective of the research, representative sample of students from business schools from Lahore were selected engaged in under graduation and graduation business degree courses. Students were chosen through systematic sampling method from three universities and filled the questionnaire on spot. The data was collected through employing the  systematic sampling techniques (Kish, 1964) this involves selection of every k th unit from the sample (Fisher et al., 2007). In this survey the questionnaires were handed over to every 4 th students entering in the department.
Respondents were asked to indicate their response on 5-point likert scale ranging from 1-Strongly agree, 2-Agree, 3-Indifference, 4-Strongly disagree and 5disagree. The scale measurement of environmental awareness was employed and developed by Vlosky et al. (1999). The scale of items regarding environmental behavior was adopted from (Stern, 2000) and (Leeming et al., 1995). To measure the environmental knowledge, scale adopted from (Kaiser and Wilson, 2000;Leeming et al., 1995). The reliability test predicts the precision and accuracy of the measurement procedures. The data reliability was measured through Cronbach's Alpha and scores means is 0.77. The model is considered reliable if value of Cronbach's Alpha is greater than 0.71 (Cooper and Schindler, 2005). The reliability statistics test gives Cronbach's Alpha 0.77. This Cronbach's Alpha is sufficient to predict the reliability of the items as supported by (Cooper and Schindler, 2005). The collected data were analyzed through using SPSS V.16 descriptive analysis and standard analysis testing. Descriptive statistics used to calculate frequency, mean and standard deviation analyze the results. The one way ANOVA method used was and analysis of independence and test for normality of dependent variable along with Levene's test were measured. The data were analyzed according to male and female (gender), education level of attainment, parents income and occupation. t-test or Mann-Whitney U test within each of these categories were used where data were not normally distributed and analysis of variance or Kruskill-Wallis analysis were used where data were not normally distributed.
Respondent's profile: Total Number of 400 questionnaires was administrated through systematic sampling, out of which 347 were found useable according to our study and 57 survey forms were rejected due to incomplete information provided. Most respondents were male 50.4% and female 49.6% male student. The age of respondents was from 17 to 23 years old. Table 2 shows respondents' demographic profile. Table 3 shows that the overall mean score for the level of environmental behavior is 3.52 (out of 5), this scores is greater than the average. From this it is seems that the respondents are in favor to behave as environmental friendly behavior. The highest mean scores from all items of environmental behavior is take initiative to encourage others to behave more environmentally behavior. This could be possible because of that our majority of the respondents were Muslims and Islam has give more focused on cleanness of the environment. For the environmental Awareness over mean out of 5 are 2.83, the results shows that it is above average and younger have the perception that they are better informed about the adverse effect on this planet. The mean score of the items teachers encourages you to care of environment is 2.60.

RESULT ANALYSIS
This support the study result of Rohweder (2004) proposed that teachers should be devoted environmental awareness' and it could promote the idea to protect the environment. Who found that only teachers devoted to environmental education would promote the cause? The overall mean of the environmental knowledge is high     Table 4. t-test was carried out to check that either there is significant difference in environmental behavior, awareness and knowledge between male and female. There was found no statistical significance difference between the means scores of environmental behavior where t = -0.976, df = 345, p>0.05 and knowledge t = -0.976, df = 345, p>0.05. However the mean score of awareness t = -2.15, df = 345, p<0.05 were statistically significant.
The female their mean scores and standard deviation were 3.36 (0.74), 3.72 (0.88), 3.36 (0.74) respectively. The detailed results of t-test are summarizes in Table 5. The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was applied for assessing the group differences and compare means of the groups. ANOVA is applied to measure the effect of independent variables on the dependent variables. H1. It is found that a significant difference is exist between male and female in their level of environmental attitudes. The analysis of independent sample t-test was performed to see differences between gender (male and female) on environmental awareness. The results provided in the Table 5 for gender and environmental awareness. Form the results it is concluded that there is significance difference in environmental awareness of male and female. Since hypothesis H1 was not supported since p>0.05. This shows that no statistically significant difference is found between male and female students when it is compared with their environmental awareness (Table 6 and 7).
The hypothesis 2 was answered by performing analysis of variance test for independent variable income and the dependent variables (environmental awareness, knowledge and behavior) in group. ANOVA test was performed by taking income as independent         ((F = 11.501, d.f = 4 and p<0.05). Since results of environmental awareness is significant, for deeper understanding the difference between each income group with their level of environmental awareness, post hoc analysis test was performed which revealed that parents income between 10,000 to 25,000 (Mean  Table 8 and 9 respectively. The scale of annual incomes was: 1,  0000< and between 10000-25000, between 25000-40000, between 40000-55000 and >55000.An analysis of Tukey HSD was performed using income as independent variable and environmental knowledge as dependent variable. Further analysis shows that the parents with annual income of Rs 10000< showed the lowest knowledge when compared with an annual income between 25000-40000. There was statistically difference in income and level of environmental knowledge. The hypothesis 3 was answered by performing analysis of variance test for independent variable occupation and the dependent variables (environmental awareness, knowledge and behavior) in group. Analysis of variance was performed using as income as independent variable and means dependent variables.
The results show that there is significance difference between the groups of environmental awareness. The results shows in table, groups differ from each other. We can interpret the results as there is significance difference in the environmental awareness between the groups who are the professional and retired. But there is no statistically significance difference between the occupations of employed, self employed. Students who parents are Professionals and retired occupations shows high level of environmental awareness (employed vs. self employed: p = 0.078, professional vs. employed; p = 0.001, retired vs. employed = 0.591, tukey HSD). Based on the results it is cleared that there was statistically significant difference between the groups of environmental awareness as measured by the ANOVA. Tukey post hoc test revealed that occupation (professional and retired) have significant effect on the environmental awareness in students.

CONCLUSION
There are many different socioeconomic factors that are effect on the student's environmental awareness, knowledge and behavior. It is concluded that level of environmental awareness was higher in students whose parents are employed and having low income. Findings of this study clearly support that notion university students of the business education have affect on environmental awareness and behavior from their parents' socio-economic status. Form the above analysis, we can draw conclusion that female shows more environmental behavior male counterpart students. It is concluded that this study is consisted with the Zelezny et al. (2000) found female students exhibit more pro-environmental behavior than the male students. It could be due to the reason that most of the female are engaged in cleanness of home and take other social responsibilities at home. Similarly in line with this conclusion (Ewert and Baker, 2001) supported that female students had higher mean scores of proenvironment behavior than male students. Results clearly indicate that business students irrespective of their culture background and parents income are differed in their environmental awareness and behavior. Low level of awareness in the male students is mainly because that they are not often engaged in domestic responsibilities (Table 11).
Analysis of the results provides a strong indication that there is need to create awareness among the students, this which will turn to a positive environmental behavior. Female students are more environmentally aware than male students. The higher level of awareness level in female indicates that in their spar they inclined towards popular source of information watching TV and use of social media. Socio-economic status income and occupation had significant impact on the environmental awareness' among our business students This is contradict to the findings of Arcury andChristianson (1990, 1993) explained that income had no impact on the environmental awareness. The respondents matched with the occupation and asses their environmental awareness, knowledge and behavior. The students with parents' occupations are either professional and retired are more environmentally aware than the students whose parents occupation is employed or self employed. This is likely due to they put more focused on means of earning and had least interest what is happening around him. This predict that the parents occupation have significant impact on the development of environmental knowledge and behavior. In order to sustain civic development, sustainability considerations have to be made integral part of education (Ghauri et al., 2011).
I hope that this research will provide a foundation of understanding what important factors contribute in creating the awareness and developing behavior in students, particularly in the developing countries inadequate research is found in this area. Previous available literature on environmental awareness supported there exist association with the demographic variables such as sex (male, female, age, income and occupation). On the other side there are extensive studies available which contradicts the relationships between the environmental awareness and socio demographic factors. Further study is need to explore and understanding which demographic factor is strongly and positively associated with the environmental awareness, knowledge and behavior by undertaking a large population from different cities.