Environmental Consciousness in Germany 1998

Environmental consciousness and conduct in areas relevant to the
environment.

Topics: classification of the significance of political problems such
as unemployment, providing housing, preservation of the social state,
combating crime, foreigner questions, environmental protection and
competitive ability of business (scale); judgement on personal impact
from noise, exhaust, bad air and trash lying around; burden from
traffic in the residental street of respondent; perceived irritation
from noise in the evening; view of green areas and having one´s own
yard; characterization of location of residence as well as perceived
noise burden in the residential surroundings; satisfaction with
environmental situation in residential area; global assessment of
environmental conditions (scale); feeling of personal responsibility
regarding environmental protection; attitude to science and technology
as environmentally harmful or protective; ecological values and
environmental consciousness (scale).

Environmentally conscious shopping practices: looking for the
environmental compatibility of products when shopping; orientation on
symbols of environmentally compatible products; knowledge of and
looking for the ´Blue Angel´; willingness to to pay extra for
environmentally conscious and environmentally compatible products;
environmentally conscious shopping practices, e.g. when purchasing
beverages in returnable bottles; leaving packaging in stores as well as
change of environment practices in recent time; purchase of fruit and
vegetables in season and locally; purchase of rechargable batteries;
purchase of clothing in second-hand shop; duration of wearing articles
of clothing (one season to 3 years); fashion, price or longevity as
criteria when buying clothing; attitude to genetically modified foods;
judgement on statements about products harmful to the environment,
purchase of canned food and the general lack of care in dealing with
environmental problems; attitude to purchase of products from
controlled-biological cultivation.

Waste management: frequency of separating trash into the individual
recyclable categories; possession of a bio-trashcan or personally
composting; collection point for hazardous waste in close vicinity;
distance to closest container for waste paper as well as used glass;
group trashcan or individual trashcan; manner of participation of
household in ´dual system´ with the green dot {recycling}; attitude to
extent of general trash creation, to recycling and to environmentally
friendly elimination of residual waste (scale); willingness to pay
higher trash fees as well as separation of further types of trash.

Use of energy and water: use of energy-saving lamps; energy-conscious
turning off of light as well as television; frugal use of water and
water-saving equipment in household; water-saving button on toilet;
paying water costs based on use or at a flat rate; manner of airing
rooms in the winter; type of heating; turning off heat when leaving the
residence for several hours; reasons against turning it off;
automatically lowering heat at night and possible reasons against it;
fixed-rate heating costs for the residence; use of a clothes dryer;
attitude to saving energy (scale).

Traffic and car: possession and number of bicycles, mopeds,
motorcycles and cars; environmental protection as reason for not owning
or restricted use of a car; frequency of using the car in days as well
as according to kilometers driven; frequency of excursions on weekends
and preferred means of transportation; trips with bicycle, public
transportation and car without real destination, ´just for fun´; means
of transport used for last vacation; frequency of using the Federal
Railway in total and for work in the last year; self-classification as
intensive, above-average, average or more below-average driver;
possession of a Bahncard; frequency of using of air travel in total,
within Germany, within and outside of Europe in the last year;
proportion of flights for work; number of vacation trips in the last
year; use of means of transport when shopping for household and on the
way to work; distance to work as well as for shopping; commuting times
to work; using the car because of occupation; opportunities to use
public transportation on the way to work and commuting time; attitude
to statements about car and traffic such as e.g. change of driving
style to reduce gasoline use, using car out of habit, inadequate use of
OEPNV {local public passenger transport}, reduction of car use for
environmental protection reasons and use of carpools (scale);
membership in an environmental protection organization and accepted
function; political participation on environmental questions; frequency
of discussions about environmental protection; assumed attitude of
social surroundings to personal involvement in an environmental
protection group; assessment of the effectiveness of environmental
policy measures such as existing laws to protect the environment;
attitude to greater enforcement of environmental protection laws; tax
increases to finance improved environmental protection; accepted
highest price for gasoline; satisfaction with achievements of the
Federal Environment Office (scale); attitude to a speed limit on
freeways; preferred maximum speed limit; agreement with centers of town
free of cars, expansion of pedestrian zones and increase in parking
fees in large cities; approval of restricted traffic areas and 30-KM/H
zones in purely residential areas; attitude to expansion of the OEPNV
{local public passenger transport}, bicycle paths, increasing the cost
of driving a car and transferring freight traffic to rail transport;
attitude to significant increase in trash fees, construction of garbage
incinerating plants, establishing garbage disposal sites and stricter
legal requirements for the manufacture of products; judgement on recent
progress in environmental compatibility of packaging, cleanliness of
inshore waters, clean air, with protection of the soil, with climate
protection and energy conservation; assessment of the danger of
gene-technology and judgement on adequate protective functions of the
government; knowledge about the so-called ecological tax reform;
preference for step-wise or rapid conversion to such a tax reform;
environmental protection and creating jobs; knowledge about the term
´nachhaltige Entwicklung´ (sustainable development); judgement on
environmental conditions in the new as well as in the old states; trust
in the ability of parties, environmental protection officials,
initiatives, trade unions and industry regarding environmental
protection.

Environmental knowledge: estimate of average water consumption of a
citizen per day, the proportion of power from nuclear power plants and
knowledge of the electricity price per kilowatt-hour; household
equipment with the highest energy consumption; gas responsible for the
greenhouse effect; danger from high ozone levels on the ground or in
the atmosphere; knowledge of native animals and plants on the so-called
´red list´; judgement on one´s own as well as over-all German current
and future economic situation; residential floor space (in qm); number
of rooms smaller than 6 qm; form of housing and type of residential
building; year of construction of residential building; frequency of
contact with neighbors.$

Demography: sex; month and year of birth; school education; vocational
training certificate; employment; weekly working hours; occupational
position; fear of unemployment; personal unemployment in the last few
years; self-classification of social class and on a left-right
continuum; interest in politics; party preference (Sunday question);
marital status; living together with a partner and employment of
partner; number of children; ages of persons living in the household;
income of respondent and household income; religious denomination;
religiousness; size of city in which respondent grew up; origins from
the GDR; length of residence; telephone possession; possession of
telephone answering device; computer possession und Internet access.
Interviewer rating: presence of third persons during interview and
their degree of relationship to respondent; intervention by other
persons in the interview; willingness to cooperate and reliability of
respondent.

Also encoded was: date of interview; number of interviews at sample
point; number of contact attempts by telephone and in person;
interviewer age; education level of interviewer.