Low-carbon behaviour is a crucial pathway to addressing current climate change and promoting sustainable economic and social development. The importance of environmental education has become a widely recognised consensus among higher education institutions. However, the mechanisms through which environmental education influences the low-carbon behaviour of the new generation of college students remain insufficiently explored. This study introduces environmental attitude and green perceived value as mediators, while prosocial behaviour is a moderator. A moderated chain mediation model is developed from new perspectives of psychological, social and environmental values, and this theoretical model is empirically tested using 759 college students in China surveyed by a questionnaire. The findings reveal that environmental education positively drives college students’ low-carbon behaviour, with environmental attitude and green perceived value playing a partial chain mediation role between environmental education and low-carbon behaviour. Additionally, prosocial behaviour positively moderates the relationships between environmental attitude, green perceived value and college students’ low-carbon behaviour, significantly moderating the mediating effect of green perceived value.

This study employs social cognitive theory to examine the dynamics of ethical climate, environmental passion, and low-carbon behaviours among Malaysian public servants based on data from 407 employees across 37 departments. Although ethical climate did not have a direct impact on low-carbon behaviour, a significant association with environmental passion was observed. Additionally, environmental passion exhibited a noteworthy relationship with low-carbon behaviour, and emerged as a mediator between ethical climate and low-carbon behaviour, with green mindfulness moderating this relationship. These findings underscore the importance of nurturing environmental passion and green mindfulness to promote low-carbon behaviour among employees and aid organisations in addressing environmental challenges. By addressing these empirical gaps, this study contributes to the literature on low-carbon behaviour and offers both theoretical insights and practical implications for sustainability initiatives.