A literature review on the strategies implemented by higher education institutions from 2010 to 2020 to foster pro-environmental behavior of students

Purpose Changing the present behavior of individuals toward a more sustainable lifestyle is a complex task requiring a well-established strategy and institutional commitment. The purpose of this paper is to understand the strategic steps, as proposed by Steg and Vlek (2009), that has been mostly focused on by higher education institutions (HEIs) in the past decade (2010–2020) to foster pro-environmental behavior (PEB) of students. Design/methodology/approach A literature review was conducted following the approach given by Denyer and Tranfield (2009). Subsequently, the results of 147 articles from 22 journals were discussed using the seven-element system proposed by Lozano et al. (2013). Findings In the past decade, HEIs have increased their efforts to improve their understanding of the determinants of PEB of students and methods to foster PEB. However, the results indicated that the classification was similar to previous studies, with HEIs focused mainly on assessing students in terms of personal factors (assessment and reporting category), understanding the relationships among psychological determinants and their influence on student behavior (research category) and planning educational interventions (education category). Originality/value This is the first study that reviewed the role of HEIs in fostering PEBs of students using the approach proposed by Lozano et al. (2013) as a theoretical framework and the strategy proposed by Steg and Vlek (2009) as a guideline.