Environmental Awareness in Germany 2022 Study for the German Environmental Agency and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection

The Environmental Awareness Study by the German Environment Agency (UBA) and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) has been surveying environmental awareness in Germany every two years since 1996 in a representative population survey. Citizens are asked to assess the state of the environment, their personal environmentally relevant behavior, and their attitudes and opinions on environmental and climate protection. The aim is to identify and understand prevailing patterns of thought and action in society, covering both long-term developments and emerging phenomena in equal measure. The results are used to derive recommendations for environmental policy decisions.

ConPolicy was commissioned together with the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) and imug to conduct this study. In the study, the existing time series of environmental awareness and environmental behavior will be continued, currently relevant question complexes will be added and environmental awareness and environmental behavior in Germany will be surveyed in a representative way. Finally, the data will be analyzed regarding socio-demographic characteristics.
In addition, a concept study for environmental awareness in companies will be developed and tested for the first time. Within the concept study, the environmentally relevant behavior of employees at the workplace and their attitude towards measures of the company concerning environmental responsibility will be recorded and analyzed.

The following work packages will be implemented within the study: 

• In the first work package, the current state of research will be reviewed and the research concept and questionnaire for the representative main survey will be prepared.

• In the second work package, the representative main survey and additional survey modules, including focus groups, will be conducted. 

• In the third work package, the survey results will be published in the form of a brochure and a scientific report. 

• In the fourth work package, a concept study on environmental awareness in companies will be designed, tested and evaluated.

The IÖW, which has already carried out several previous environmental awareness studies by UBA and BMUV, is primarily responsible for the development, analysis and reporting of the representative main survey in this study, which is led by ConPolicy.