Empowering Employees: How Inner Values and Responsibility Shape Malaysia’s Green Future

Conducted by researchers from Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, this study explores how employees' daily behaviors can influence environmental sustainability performance (ESP) in Malaysia's energy sector. Anchored in the country's climate commitments, especially its pledge to cut carbon intensity by 45% by 2030 under the Paris Agreement and the Twelfth Malaysia Plan, the research situates human behavior as a crucial, yet often overlooked, lever for achieving sustainable outcomes. Malaysia's energy industry remains a major contributor to national emissions, and the study argues that environmental policies and technological innovation must be complemented by employee-driven sustainable consumption behaviors within workplaces.

Theoretical Framework: Merging Values and Behavior

The researchers integrate three established models, the Attitude-Behavior-Context (ABC) theory, the Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) theory, and Stakeholder Theory, to explain how individual attitudes and organizational context jointly shape environmental performance. They conceptualize two core influences: a pro-environmental culture (split into Company Policies and Practices [CPP] and Responsibility for Environmental Issues [REI]) and workplace spirituality (WPS), defined as compassion, meaningful work, and a sense of connection that nurtures moral accountability. These cultural and psychological factors, the study proposes, foster Sustainable Consumption Behavior (SCB), actions like saving energy, reducing waste, and recycling, which then enhance environmental sustainability performance. A detailed model on page four of the paper visually links these constructs as cause-and-effect pathways.

Malaysia's Energy Challenge

The authors ground their framework in Malaysia's escalating electricity demand, where office buildings consume substantial energy through lighting, air-conditioning, and electronics. The paper highlights that the energy sector's environmental footprint cannot be mitigated solely through regulation or technology. Instead, small-scale actions within organizations, employees shutting down computers, adjusting thermostat settings, or embracing digital documentation, aggregate into significant outcomes. ESP is thus defined as a measurable set of achievements, including reduced greenhouse gas emissions, improved energy efficiency, increased use of renewable energy, and enhanced recycling and biodiversity conservation. This operational clarity allows the study to move beyond rhetoric, quantifying sustainability as performance metrics rather than ideals.

Methodology and Key Findings

Survey data were collected from 230 employees in Malaysia's energy-related industries, including oil and gas, power, renewables, and utilities. Respondents were predominantly mid-career professionals aged 31–50, many with postgraduate degrees and executive-level roles. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), the study validated relationships between spirituality, culture, behavior, and ESP. The results were striking: Company Policies and Practices, the formal rules and documentation of sustainability, showed no significant direct impact on ESP or employee behavior. In contrast, Responsibility for Environmental Issues demonstrated a strong positive effect on both SCB and ESP. This suggests that lived responsibility, not written policy, drives meaningful change.

Workplace spirituality emerged as another crucial factor, directly boosting ESP and indirectly doing so through sustainable consumption. Employees who found purpose, compassion, and interconnectedness in their work exhibited more consistent pro-environmental behavior. Furthermore, SCB itself had a significant direct impact on ESP, confirming that cumulative micro-behaviors produce measurable macro-outcomes. Mediation analysis strengthened this argument: sustainable consumption behaviors did not mediate the CPP–ESP link but fully mediated the REI–ESP and WPS–ESP pathways. The takeaway is clear: behavioral engagement, born from responsibility and purpose, is the real engine of sustainability performance.

Practical and Theoretical Implications

The discussion reframes corporate sustainability as a cultural and behavioral challenge rather than a compliance exercise. For Malaysian energy firms, the study recommends embedding environmental accountability into daily routines, training employees, empowering departments to set tangible goals, and rewarding stewardship behaviors. Formal policies must evolve into active practices, supported by emotional and moral engagement. Workplace spirituality, far from being an abstract or "soft" construct, functions as a stabilizing force that motivates sustainable action even when supervision or incentives are absent.

The authors also highlight Malaysia's broader sustainability roadmap, arguing that achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Net Energy Transition Roadmap will depend on integrating behavioral insights into energy policy. Future research, they suggest, should expand the model to other sectors such as manufacturing and small and medium enterprises, use longitudinal data, and explore how demographic or cultural factors moderate these relationships.

Making Responsibility Real

The researchers stress that the path to genuine sustainability lies in ownership, authenticity, and everyday action. Policies written on paper do not guarantee change unless employees internalize responsibility and find meaning in environmental stewardship. In Malaysia's energy sector, where emissions reduction is both a national goal and a moral imperative, organizations must nurture cultures that make environmental responsibility "real, lived, and practiced." The study thus offers both a conceptual contribution and a practical roadmap: by aligning workplace culture, spirituality, and daily behaviors, companies can transform sustainability from an abstract corporate aspiration into measurable, enduring performance.