Abstract

• This study intends to analyze the effect of subjective norm, income, government policies and prices and attitude on energy saving behavior of academic staff at Mandalay University of Distance Education (MUDE). This study focused on 72 sample academic staff out of total 147 academic staff working at this university, by using simple random sampling method. Complete responses are received from 65 respondents. Questionnaire survey is conducted with structured questionnaires. From descriptive analysis (by analyzing the mean values), most of the academic staff at MUDE have positive attitude towards energy-saving. They believe that their energy-saving will be contributing to environmental sustainability, also to reducing global warming effect and air pollution, and in solving energy shortage problems. Academic staff at MUDE have positive perception on government energy policies although they are worrying about price increase. They perceived that the policies of pushing efficient usage on energy are practical. They also believe that the government energy policies can bring benefits to people. They noticed that the energy prices increase, and they are worries about the energy price increase. Most of the academic staff at MUDE are not influenced by the people around them. The family members, friends, and colleagues cannot influence large upon them regarding the energy-saving. They are participating in energy-saving not because of the behaviors and encouragement of people around them: they practice energy saving by their own sake. Most of the academic staff at MUDE worried much on living cost increase and expenses greater than income problem. Most of the academic staff at MUDE act good in electricity saving: they are participating in energy saving actively, and also encouraging others for electricity saving. They have the concern of others’ evaluation on their behavior of electricity saving. From regression analysis, it is found that only the academic staff attitude towards electricity saving has positive significant effect on their electricity saving behavior at MUDE. The subjective norm, income, and academic staff perception on policies and prices have no effect on electricity saving behavior of academic staff at MUDE. Thus, universities should have the mechanism for knowledge sharing and training for enhancing knowledge in electricity saving techniques and materials, and consequences of electricity saving like environmental sustainability and weather changes.