Environmental identity as a motivator of pro-environmental behaviour

Environmental identity is a component of the self-concept that describes the perceived personal relationship with the natural world. People with a stronger environmental identity are more likely to engage in pro-environmental behaviour, and this link may be reinforced under certain situational conditions. Relevant stakeholders can provide a means to encourage pro-environmental behaviour, either by strengthening the environmental identity, perhaps by providing people with more opportunities to experience nature, or by heightening the salience and relevance of environmental identity to behaviour. Behaviour campaigns could do more to effectively leverage environmental identity, e.g. by attending to rich conceptions of nature, to relational aspects of identity or to other environmentally-relevant characteristics of the self. However, we emphasise that environmental identity is just one aspect of individual identity, and the impact on behaviour is also affected by the situational relevance of other identity aspects. We close with some suggestions for future research.