Psychological green climate as a mediator between green transformational leadership, innovation, and environmental awareness

Introduction The negative impacts of human activities on nature have brought about environmental problems such as global warming, water pollution, and deforestation. Mitigating these problems is closely related not only to environmental policies but also to internal leadership approaches within organizations. In this context, green transformational leadership (GTL) stands out as a contemporary leadership style that guides employees toward environmentally conscious behaviors and encourages sustainable practices. This study examines the effects of green transformational leadership on corporate green innovation and individual environmental awareness, aiming to reveal the mediating role of psychological green climate in this relationship from a Turkiye perspective. Methods The study was structured as structural equation modeling (SEM). Research data were obtained from 435 Turkish SMEs employees selected using convenience sampling, and analyzed using the SmartPLS-SEM method. Results The findings indicate that green transformational leadership encourages environmentally focused behaviors at both the organizational and individual levels, and that the psychological green climate plays a partial mediating role in these relationships. The findings show that green transformational leadership is a strategic tool in creating sustainable organizational cultures. Discussion The study is innovative because it is one of the few in the literature that integrates organizational (green innovation) and individual (environmental awareness) outcomes within the same model, treating psychological green climate as an intermediary mechanism. In this context, the research offers practical recommendations to managers for strengthening the perception of green climate, encouraging environmentally friendly behaviors, and restructuring innovation processes from a sustainability perspective.