Ecological sustainability and personal behavior: relations demonstrated by the decision‐making process of selecting a certain transportation mean

Facing the aim of ecological sustainability only little emphasis has been placed on the fact that the extent of environmental stresses is not only a consequence of certain factual or structural conditions but also essentially determined by varying human behavior patterns. Technologies and structures are not ecologically effective by themselves; their environmental relevance strongly depends on the persons’ way of acting within the prevailing systems. Recognizing the importance of that perspective, psychological and social theories about the generation of personal behavior as well as theoretical models of learning can offer useful indications concerning the intrapersonal and extrapersonal preconditions of environmentally oriented acting. With reference to the decision‐making process of selecting a certain transportation mean, the influences of rational and emotional factors and obstacles to an ecologically sustainable personal act should be exemplarily demonstrated. At the same time very effective points of departure for behavioral change can be identified.