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Considering the relevance of understanding what influences environmentally sustainable consumer choices, the present study aims to examine and synthesize the key determinants factors from literature and outline a new conceptual framework for explaining green purchasing behaviors (GPBs).

A bibliometric analysis was conducted on 161 articles extracted from Web of Science and Scopus databases, which were systematically evaluated and reviewed, and represent the current GPB knowledge base. Content analysis, science mapping and bibliometric analysis techniques were applied to uncover the major theories and constructs from the state-of-the-art.

The evolving debate between altruistic and self-interest consumer motivations reveals challenges for rational-based theories, as most empirical applications are not focused on buying behaviors, but instead either on pro-environmental (non-buying) activities or on buying intentions. From the subset of leading contributions and emerging topics, nine thematic clusters are unveiled in this investigation, which were combined to create the new PSICHE framework with the purpose of predicting GPB: (P)roduct-related factors, (S)ocial influences, (I)ndividual factors, (C)oncerns about the environment, (H)abits and (E)motions.

By uncovering the multiple intervening factors in GPB decision processes, this study will assist practitioners and academics to move forward on how to foster more sustainable consumer behaviors.

The present study provides readers a summary of an unprecedentedly broad collection of papers, from which the key themes are categorized, the domain's intellectual structure is captured and an actionable framework for enhancing the understanding GPB is proposed. Four new thrust areas and a set of future research questions are included.

Tourism may have important positive and negative economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts. However, cultural and natural resources are also the base to the development of competitive destinations and changes in these resources can have an important impact on tourism development. Despite the considerable literature regarding the impacts of tourism, a limited number of studies examine the impact of the environment on tourism, specifically the impact of air quality (AQ). Therefore, this paper aims to review what is known about the impact of AQ on tourism demand, analysing the different methods and approaches used, as well as the results obtained.

A systematic literature review method was used to examine the state of the art in this topic and identify research gaps and new research directions. Only 26 papers were identified that examine the impact of AQ on tourism demand.

The majority of the studies were carried out in China and investigate the impact of AQ on tourism from the perspective of tourism demand. Both global (tourism demand) and individual (tourist perceptions) approaches have been used to investigate the impact of AQ on tourism.

This is the first systematic literature review on the impact of outdoor AQ on tourism demand. Moreover, this paper analyses the methods and approaches that have been used in the literature to examine the impact of outdoor AQ on tourism demand. The paper ends with a discussion on the identified research gaps concerning the influence of AQ on tourism development.

This study aims to assess higher education students’ interest in learning sustainability competencies and their pro-ecological worldviews at a large research-intensive university in Finland to provide a background information for developing a sustainability science course.

In total, 797 students participated in the study. The data were collected through an online survey that measured students’ interest in learning sustainability competencies and their pro-ecological worldviews. Participants were classified into five categories based on field of study. The data were analysed by using Pearson’s correlation, independent samples t-tests, and analysis of variance.

The participating students perceived learning of critical thinking and values thinking most interesting. Interest in learning sustainability competencies and pro-ecological worldview appeared to differ across fields of study. Participants studying humanities expressed lower interest in collaborative use of digital technology compared to the participating students in science and agriculture. Participating students in health and welfare scored lower on interest in learning values thinking than students in other study fields.

The response rate was low. It is likely that the participants felt strongly about sustainability challenges, therefore making them more interested in sustainability competencies. The limited number of sustainability competencies studied does not allow generalisation to all sustainability competencies.

The differences in interest in learning sustainability competencies and pro-ecological worldview should be understood and considered when planning sustainability education.

These results provide new insights into the interlinkage of students’ interest in learning sustainability competencies, their pro-ecological worldviews and their field of study.

The purpose of this paper is to report the design and evaluation of an inter-university collaborative project entitled “Blended learning for building student-teachers’ capacity to learn and teach science-related interdisciplinary subjects.” The project is a response of the science education faculty of three Hong Kong tertiary institutes to the challenge of catering to the diversity of academic backgrounds among student-teachers.

E-learning modules have been produced covering four content domains of science. These modules are designed based on the 5E learning model and are delivered to students using the learning management system provided by Moodle. The design of the modules is iterative, based on the evaluation of three consecutive rounds of trials through student surveys, and focus group interviews with students and course lecturers.

The evaluation findings indicate positive outcomes for certain attributes such as conceptual understanding, eagerness and confidence in learning science, and metacognitive reflection on students’ own learning. There are challenges to be met in relation to instructional design to cater for the diversity of student abilities, and enhance motivation in self-directed learning.

The project indicates the ways to develop students’ basic science knowledge in a mixed-ability setting through the design of self-directed e-learning modules blended with their major courses and possible measures to address the limitations of such design.

The study represents a conscious effort for the science teacher education faculty of different universities to pull together to tackle a perennial teaching and learning problem. The findings provide important insights into possible ways to blend e-learning with face-to-face learning approaches to better cater to the needs of science learners with mixed abilities to prepare them for interdisciplinary teaching.

This study aims to present a comprehensive knowledge mapping and an in-depth analysis of plastic and sustainability research to understand better global trends and directions in this field that emerged between 1995 and 2022.

This study presents a visual analysis of 1933 research articles listed in the Web of Science (WoS) databases between the years 1995 and 2022 related to plastic and sustainability. The knowledge mapping based on CiteSpace and VOSviewer presents the current research status, which contains the analysis of the collaboration network, co-citation network, references with citation bursts and keyword analysis.

The results reveal that China and the USA are the most prominent countries in exploring the notion of sustainability and plastic. The Chinese Academy of Science is the most prominent institution. Chai Qiang, Friedrich Daniel, Sahajwalla Veena and Ok Yong Sik are the most prolific authors in this field. Furthermore, circular economy, bioplastic, sustainable development, polyester and bioplastics are the highly discussed issues in recent years. Not surprisingly, COVID-19 is the latest topic of discussion started in 2021 due to its negative impact on plastic pollution and the challenges it posed to sustainability.

This study is among the pioneers to shed light on the current research status of plastic and sustainability using the bibliometric method and the newest data. This study also suggests that collaborations between scholars and institutions require to be enhanced for better management of plastic pollution and to contribute to sustainable development.