Environmental Behaviours Survey 2024 – Highlights of Survey Results

Environmental concerns & trends

In this study, participants were asked to express their level of concern over a list of issues, ranging from environmental conservation and enhancement to climate change and community impact. 

• In response, participants indicated that they are most concerned about their local natural environment and cleanliness of the local area. 
• In terms of trends, the level of concern for these aspects has remained consistent since 2016, while significantly fewer people are now concerned about reducing their household water use (67%) compared to 2022 (73%).

Environmental behaviours & attitudes

Participants were asked to indicate their frequency of engaging in various environmental behaviours (on a 5-point scale, i.e. never, very occasionally, occasionally, often, and very often). This question was consistently asked in the past studies since 2016.

• The majority of participants (around 7 in 10) frequently (i.e. often or very often) undertake the following: visited a local park, bushland, river or creek, tried to minimise food waste to landfill and actively avoided sending an item to landfill. 
• However, the frequency of engaging in environmentally friendly activities is generally lower in 2024 than in 2022.
• It appears that cost is a bigger barrier than effort for people to do more for the environment - with 73% indicating they would consciously take actions to minimise their environmental impact even if it requires extra effort, whilst only 51% of them indicated so if it requires extra cost. 

Environmental initiatives awareness & participation

Participants were shown a list of Council initiatives and asked about their awareness as well as whether they had participated in them. Some examples of the initiatives shown were FOGO, bulky waste collection, Clean Up Australia Day, National Tree Day etc.

• Council’s waste-related services and initiatives are well known by many. Over 7 in 10 have heard about FOGO and many workshop attendees have applied these learnings to their household behaviours.
• Awareness and participation of the bulky waste collection service has increased significantly (by 12%) since 2022.

Topics of future interest

Participants were asked to indicate the area of environmental matters they were interested to learn more about in the future. Some examples of the areas listed were saving on energy bills, growing your own food/community gardening, learning more about local nature and wildlife, etc.

• Based on this study, reducing energy bills and growing their own food are the two topics most would like to learn more about, along with a focus on ‘savings’ in general.
• This observation resonates with and reinforces the attitude revealed in this study of how people found cost as the bigger barrier than effort for them to do more for the environment.

Implications and next steps

The survey results are used by Council to plan for future environmental initiatives and to track Council’s progress in a range of actions identified in the updated Environmental Sustainability Strategy 2024-2028. Follow us on Liveable Parramatta to be updated on Council’s environmental initiatives and programs.

Implications and next steps

The survey results are used by Council to plan for future environmental initiatives and to track Council’s progress in a range of actions identified in the updated Environmental Sustainability Strategy 2024-2028. Follow us on Liveable Parramatta to be updated on Council’s environmental initiatives and programs.