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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Sustain.
Sec. Sustainable Organizations
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frsus.2024.1371737

Workplace eco-anxiety: a scoping review of what we know and how to mitigate the consequences

Provisionally accepted
Prisca Ayassamy Prisca Ayassamy 1Virginie Francoeur Virginie Francoeur 1*Pascal Paillé Pascal Paillé 2
  • 1 Polytechnique Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  • 2 NEOMA Business School, Mont-Saint-Aignan, Upper Normandy, France

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Purpose: Eco-anxiety can affect individuals' environmental engagement conditions. People spend approximately 35 hours or more per week in a workplace environment. It is worth considering whether workplace initiatives exist to deal with eco-anxiety. Little research has been carried out on workplace-related eco-anxiety and no studies have been conducted on how to respond to this health issue within the workplace specifically. To address this issue, we explored eco-anxiety in a workplace context in the literature and developed a model of change to better respond to employees' eco-anxiety. Methodology: First, a scoping review was conducted to investigate workplace eco-anxiety. Second, an analysis was performed in which Lewin's theory of change was used to propose changes in the workplace designed to better respond to eco-anxiety. Findings: Lewin's three stages can guide action to reduce eco-anxiety in the workplace.Step 1 (unfreeze) involves becoming aware of the eco-anxiety problem within the organization, step two (change) consists of finding alternatives in the built environment such as green spaces and pro-environmental behaviour through circular economy practices, and step 3 (refreeze) involves stabilizing this change. Originality: Our study is among the few to explore eco-anxiety in the workplace specifically and, to our knowledge the first, to propose an intervention model for management and employees. Lewin's three stages can guide action to reduce eco-anxiety in the workplace.

    Keywords: Eco-anxiety, Workplace, Theory of Change Management, Pro-environmental Behaviour (PEB), Nature-based interventions (NBI), Green human resource management (GHRM), Scoping review

    Received: 16 Jan 2024; Accepted: 11 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ayassamy, Francoeur and Paillé. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Virginie Francoeur, Polytechnique Montréal, Montreal, H3T 1J4, Quebec, Canada

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.