Chapter 9: Creating a Culture of Sustainability and Happiness

As people around the world grapple with the two imperatives of environmental protection and human well-being, a growing body of research and practice shows that sustainable practices not only protect the environment but also nurture deeper, more enduring forms of happiness. By drawing upon survey in different field of insights from environmental science, psychology, and socio-economic development, this chapter aims to discuss sustainability and happiness, to introduce to the reader perspectives about the setting where these two forces build upon each other. It will consider how sustainability in environmental, socio-economic, and cultural terms can be a condition for happiness and how a feeling of happiness might motivate people and organisations to contribute to their own sustainability. Through this inquiry, the chapter seeks to understand how sustainable happiness may be nurtured at a personal and a collective level, whether making one’s own life, workplace, community, and or society more sustainable. But most importantly, the goal is to provide a holistic look at how these two immense forces can come together and define the future in which both people and the planet thrive.