Exploring the moderating role of university environmental performance in shaping students’ environmental awareness and behaviors

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the moderating role of university environmental performance in the relationship between students’ environmental awareness and behavior, with a particular focus on the imperative for universities to adopt comprehensive sustainability frameworks. Design/methodology/approach Using a quantitative research methodology, the study administered a survey to 775 undergraduate students from diverse academic departments at a public university. The survey aimed to assess students’ environmental awareness, behaviors and perceptions of university environmental performance. The Mann–Whitney U test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Friedman test were applied, and a simple moderation analysis was performed. Findings The results indicate that environmental awareness significantly influences students’ environmental behaviors. Crucially, the perception of environmental performance moderates the relationship between environmental awareness and behavior. The relationship between environmental awareness and environmental behaviors becomes stronger when environmental performance increases. Research limitations/implications While the scope of this research is limited to a single institution, potentially limiting the generalizability of the findings, future studies could extend this investigation to multiple universities to confirm and expand upon these results. Originality/value This research contributes to the existing body of literature by emphasizing the critical role universities play in cultivating students’ environmental awareness and behaviors, and it underscores the importance of institutional environmental performance in promoting sustainable practices within academic environments. Although previous research has explored environmental awareness and behavior, this study offers a unique contribution as it establishes a connection between the awareness-behavior gap and environmental performance.