Abstract
Human behavioral change is necessary if we wish to evolve into a more sustainable human society, but change is hard, especially given that many people equate environmentalism with personal sacrifice. This paper highlights a semester-long assignment in which undergraduate students examined five behaviors that claim to increase happiness with minimal ecological footprints. We used mixed methods to analyze students’ self-reported positive and negative affect scores before and after completing each of the five activities, along with descriptions of the carbon footprint of each activity and student self-reflections on whether each challenge promoted “sustainability”. Results indicated that students’ positive affect increased with each activity, while negative affect decreased. Student reflections indicated that engagement with systems thinking can be used to examine the relationship between their own well-being and the ecological outcomes of each of their chosen activities, as well as alternatives that would decrease their footprint. In final reflections, 85% of students stated that they would promote these five behaviors among the general public to enhance sustainability efforts. We discuss using the Sustainable Well-being Challenge as a tool to promote behaviors that support both human and ecological well-being.
Highlights
In order to bring human consumption of natural resources within planetary boundaries, there is a critical need to shift human behaviors away from current exploitative practices [1,2]
We provide the Sustainable Well-Being Challenge” (SWBC) as a pedagogical tool to be used for teaching sustainability at undergraduate level, and we recommend that instructors situate the SWBC within the context of their own courses to best meet the needs of their students
Our results indicate that (1) the majority of students experienced personal benefit from increased positive affect and decreased negative affect after completing each of the five challenge activities, (2) written statements indicate critical reflection and transformative learning among students, and (3) the majority of students would recommend promoting these activities as ways to support both human and ecological well-being
Summary
In order to bring human consumption of natural resources within planetary boundaries, there is a critical need to shift human behaviors away from current exploitative practices [1,2]. Present cumulative global consumption rates would require the equivalent biocapacity of 1.6 Earths [3]. Recent analysis of consumption across 43 countries suggests that household consumption is responsible for 65% of global carbon emissions, 81% of water use, 70% of land use, and 51% of material resource use [4]. Consumption varies dramatically between wealthy and impoverished nations, and current evidence shows that consumption rates in low-income countries would be able to support 13.6 billion people if practiced on a global scale, while that of high-income countries could only sustain 2.1 billion people—merely one fifth of the current world population [5]. A change in the household consumption behaviors of high-income countries could lead to a drastic decrease in the cumulative human ecological footprint. Many researchers who study relationships between the environment and human well-being suggest that it is quite possible to be “environmentally friendly” while improving personal affect and happiness [9,10]
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