Could sustainability be the key to our collective happiness?

With growing awareness of sustainability, Natalia E.L. Madsen explores if that can be the key to our collective happiness.

Photographs: Unsplash

Text: Natalia E.L. Madsen

Some years ago, an Australian nurse working in palliative care documented the most common regrets of the dying. One of the most frequent was, “I wish I hadn't worked so hard.” Another one was, “I wish that I had let myself be happier,” reminding us that happiness is often a choice more than a destination. Now, what if choosing happiness and choosing sustainability actually went hand in hand? Can a more sustainable life be a happier life? Let’s explore the idea.

The good life

If I asked you to define the concept of ‘the good life,’ what would you say? Most would probably mention happiness or well-being, but even those words have different meanings for different people.

Some see wellbeing in work-life balance, free healthcare or access to natural spaces. For many, however, wellbeing and happiness are tied to a big house, expensive cars and carbon-intensive trips around the world - none of which are what our planet needs at the moment.

Corporations, society, and the media condition us to believe that our success and self-worth are products of growth and excess, but what if there were another way? As Kasper Reimer Bjørkskov puts it in his publication, The Minority Report:

“Imagine a society where success isn’t measured by accumulation, but by contribution. Where prestige isn’t about how much we consume, but how much we regenerate. Where status comes not from having the biggest house, but from living in the most vibrant neighbourhood, this isn’t utopia. It’s simply a shift in values from extraction to care.”

From excess to sufficiency

I grew up in a very humble family. I recall two family vacations from my childhood, both to a hotel located just over 100 kilometres down the coast from where we lived. It was a happy childhood full of good memories, and while we didn’t have a fraction of the things or experiences my kids enjoy today, I seldom felt like I lacked anything.

Unfortunately, our baseline for what is ‘enough’ keeps shifting. What was enough for my parents, having grown up under a fascist dictatorship, doesn’t feel like much for the next generations. In our current times, it seems that nothing is ever enough, which means most people can never be fully satisfied and content. But what does that say about us?

Are we humans, or are we consumers?

As Erin Remblance, co-founder of (re)Biz, so eloquently puts it: “Our days are spent consuming advertising, social media feeds, plastic-packaged and processed food, novel experiences and date nights out, travel packages and red-hot deals, streaming services and the latest games, books, electronics and endless ‘stuff’. Everything and anything that the ‘market’ can provide.”

We are constantly being manipulated to put our humanity aside and be what corporations and capitalist markets need us to be. But at the end of the day, what is our reason for existence? And what is it that we, as humans, are really craving?

Is it more stuff, or is it more meaning? Is it success, or is it purpose? Do we want to have it all, or do we want to feel seen and belong? It might very well be that shifting our focus away from consumption not only makes the world more sustainable but also brings a little more meaning and happiness into our lives as well.

Human connection: good for people and for the planet

In our day and age, most of our systems encourage an individualistic way of thinking. We are encouraged to grow, to advance, to compete, to optimise ourselves and our careers - to see ourselves separate from the rest. And in that process, we are left feeling increasingly alone. Disconnected. The rates of depression and anxiety keep rising, and no amount of online shopping or social media scrolling will fill the void we work so hard to ignore.

Humans are social beings. We are wired to seek relationships, to find our tribe. In a more sustainable world, communities thrive. People replace consumption with connection. Neighbours cooperate.

Imagine a future where life is slower, we work less, and thus have time for art, music, rest, and hobbies. Time to care for friends and relatives, to cook healthy meals, to find ways to enjoy nature and stay active. A future in which we find fulfilment not via accumulation but through relationships with others that are based on belonging, supporting each other and creating things together. A world where “the good life” takes shape when you get to be yourself, align your values with your actions and do more of the things that contribute to your mental and physical wellbeing.

A future where life means more than working to hoard stuff and pay bills wouldn’t just be good for the planet, but also for people. Sustainability and happiness can go hand in hand - if we dare to imagine it possible.