Love of nature as a mediator between connectedness to nature and sustainable consumption behavior

Despite the importance of having a love of nature, it is unclear as to how this love affects the different dimensions of sustainable consumption behavior (SCB). Drawing on love of nature and connectedness to nature, we propose that this love, consisting of passion for nature, intimacy with nature, and commitment to nature, is beneficial to SCB. Furthermore, we suggest that connectedness to nature is the driving factor of love of nature. We employed survey data collected from 856 Chinese urban consumers to empirically investigate this theoretical framework. Our findings showed that passion for nature, intimacy with nature, and commitment to nature have positive influences on green purchasing, reusability, and recycling. In addition, connectedness to nature inspires direct positive effects on green purchasing and recycling, and exerts indirect positive effects on SCB. These findings have theoretical and policy implications for understanding how the different dimensions of the love of nature function to influence SCB. (c) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.