Investigating the effective factors on environmental behavior of environmental NGOs members in Tehran Province

In recent decades, environmental crises have caused increasing concerns about the safety of human life. Many believe to the environmental that the solution crises should be searched in the change of human behavior and attitude’s and his life method on earth. Researchers have suggested various solutions for environmental problems, most of which are technological. But nowadays due to the high cost of these projects, they are interested in changing people's lifestyles and behavior. Different models and theories have been used in various studies to explain the environmental behavior and different variables have been studied as the effective factors on environmental behavior.
Environmental NGOs have been stablished due to society needs and raising public awareness and knowledge about environmental issues is the main role of NGOs. These organizations play an important role in achieving the goals of protecting the environment, reducing pollution and recovering environmental damages. Therefore Environmental NGOs is one of the most important tools for environment conservation. The main goal of this study is to investigating the effects of environmental knowledge, environmental perception, environmental attitudes and environmental intention on environmental behavior of environmental NGOs members.This study is a descriptive-correlational research and survey method was used to collect the data. The statistical population consisted of environmental NGOs members in Tehran Province which are active in environmental education field that has about 250 main and active members. Sample size determined 148 person by using Krejcie and Morgan table and Sampling was done randomly. In this study in order to collect information, a questionnaire including 55 items in two parts was used: The questions of the first part was about the individual features and the second part questions were related to four factors influencing environmental behavior including environmental knowledge, environmental attitude, environmental perception and environmental intention. Items were designed by adopting new environmental paradigm questionnaire: ‎Dunlap et al. (2000), environmental knowledge questionnaire: Morrone et al. (2001) and Frick et al. questionnaire (2004). Content validity was confirmed by experts and its reliability Obtained based on Cronbach's alpha α=%88. Data analysis is done by using SPSS 21 and Smart-PLS software. In descriptive statistics mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation and in inference statistics, structural modeling based on partial least squares approach were used.According to Table 1, the independent variable (environmental attitude), has the most effect on the of mediator variable (environmental intention) and also the most impact on the dependent variable (environmental behavior), and then environmental knowledge is most effective. Environmental intention as mediator variable is explained 59/6 percent of the variance of the environmental behavior between environmental NGOs members in Tehran Province. Also the four variables (environmental knowledge, environmental attitude, environmental perception and environmental intention), 33/4 percent of the variance of the dependent variable: environmental behavior is explained by four variables: environmental knowledge, environmental attitude, environmental perception and environmental intention. And the remaining percentage is related to factors that have not been identified in this research.The results of the research hypotheses testing in Table 5 shows that all hypotheses have been confirmed.
Result T Value Beta hypotheses
confirmed 5/429 0/499 Hypothesis 1: There is a significant relationship between knowledge and environmental behavior.
confirmed 4/876 0/664 Hypothesis 2: There is a significant relationship between attitude and environmental behavior.
confirmed 5/341 0/445 Hypothesis 3: There is a significant relationship between perception and environmental behavior.
confirmed 10/518 0/578 Hypothesis 4: There is a significant relationship between intention and environmental behavior.
confirmed 5/961 0/316 Hypothesis 5: There is a significant relationship between knowledge and environmental intention.
confirmed 7/002 0/421 Hypothesis 6: There is a significant relationship between attitude and environmental intention.
confirmed 5/592 0/282 Hypothesis 7: There is a significant relationship between perception and environmental intention.

The results showed that all four variables (environmental knowledge, environmental attitude, environmental perception and environmental intention), have a high mean in the environmental NGOs members in Tehran Province. Also there is a positive and significant relationship between all four variables (environmental knowledge, environmental attitude, environmental perception and environmental intention) and environmental behavior. Environmental attitude has been identified as the most effective variable on environmental intention and environmental behavior in this study. So, awareness programs should be implemented for changing the attitude of the people and creating a proper environmental behavior culture. To create a positive attitude towards the environment in people, organizational goals should clarify and explain for all members. For this purpose NGOs can use seminars, question and answer sessions and periodically meetings for organization members. environmental education in order to creating positive environmental attitude has to be considered because Having knowledge and understanding about environmental issues are the necessary conditions for good attitudes and impacting on behavior. Environmental education is the most fundamental method for environmental protection that aims to find the most suitable and best systems for Presenting contents and practices and implementation a structural that promote environmental awareness and knowledge and finally creating positive attitude in society and each person feels responsibility to preserve and protect the environment. Experts believe that knowledge, attitudes and perception’s changes of people towards the environment will lead to develop and strengthen environmental behavior and reducing damage to the environment and reforming the environment crisis. One of the most important tools for making changes in effective factors on environmental behaviors, is environmental education. Promoting environmental awareness in the society for each person, create a positive attitude toward environment, feeling responsibility for maintaining and protecting the environment and respect nature and Knowledge about different approaches for environmental problems and participating in finding solutions, all of these are capabilities that can be achieved only with efficient environmental education. One of the important issues about environmental behavior and environmental conservation, is pay attention to environmental NGOs education and training. NGOs according to their mission and objectives, has appropriate facilities to increase public awareness through education and training of their members and other people and should t support these organizations in order to achieving their goals.