Audit organizations’ independence and supervision function may guide the public’s pro-environmental behavior. Based on panel data from 292 cities in China from 2011 to 2019, we explore the impact of Auditing Vertical Management Reform on public environmental concerns through a difference-in-differences method. The results indicate that Auditing Vertical Management Reform positively affects public environmental concerns in the short term. Auditing Vertical Management Reform enhances public environmental concern by improving government environmental enforcement and corporate environmental information disclosure. We further confirm that Auditing Vertical Management Reform and Public Interest Litigation Reform have a synergistic implementation effect for the long-term enhancement of public environmental concern. Auditing Vertical Management Reform’s impact on public environmental concern is more pronounced in cities with higher legal development and digitization or lower fiscal pressure. These findings complement the scant literature on the environmental effects of Auditing Vertical Management Reform, provide insights into the relationship between the independence of audit offices and public environmental awareness, and provide empirical evidence for other countries concerned with the management model of audit institutions.