'Energy consumption sustainability' in agriculture is used as a multidimensional approach to deal with sus-tainable utilization of agricultural inputs. Accordingly, the present study aims to identify and analyze the criteria of energy consumption sustainability in agricultural greenhouses in Iran through an exploratory mixed method. Factors of energy consumption sustainability are extracted according to qualitative research results. Then, factors are confirmed and validated through a quantitative study on a sample consisted of 185 experts and leading greenhouse owners in Kerman province, southeastern Iran. According to the results, attitudinal -behavioral, managerial -institutional, and educational -knowledge factors have the greatest effect on energy consumption sus-tainability in agricultural greenhouses, respectively; so that attitudinal -behavioral factors require "environmental impact", "adaptation", "significance in the study area", "usability" and "user-friendliness" criteria, managerial -institutional factors require "profitability", "availability", "policy-relevance", "employment", "cost-effectiveness" and "agricultural development" criteria, and educational -knowledge factors require "understandability", "pro-ductivity", "technical feasibility" and "health-oriented" criteria. Therefore, due to the gaps in providing an appropriate platform to achieve energy consumption sustainability in agriculture, its criteria and factors that are identified and validated in this research can pave the way for policy makers and planners in this field. While these criteria and factors have been validated in Iran (a region with different climatic variations), they can be applied to a wider geographical and climate range.
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