Cleaner, Leaner, Happier

In sustainability circles much is made of the three pillars of sustainability and the fad of balancing the triple bottom lines of environment, society, and economy. I have never quite understood what this ‘balancing’ meant. To me this is to confuse ends with means, objectives with tools. Maximisation of environmental wellbeing and human wellbeing are two desirable endpoints. Economic wellbeing is merely a means to achieve those ends.

Such maximization of environmental wellbeing and human wellbeing –or ‘good lives’ within the ‘carrying capacity’ or limits of the planet should surely be a better gauge of how well society is doing than measures such as GDP which focus only on one thing – the economy. Even Simon Kuznets, the Nobel prize-winning economist whose work helped establish GDP said that it was a really bad measure for the overall welfare of a nation.

In the quality of life report we cite the huge amount of truly frightening evidence that we have already well overshot that natural carrying capacity of the planet. We also cite evidence that we seem to have lost sight of what truly matters to people which is how happy and fulfilled they are. I guess one could say ‘well look the planet has to suffer a bit for our happiness’. But the fact is we are not getting any happier – indeed by some accounts things are getting worse as society and community breaks down.

None of this is to say that we should stop consuming things, go back to living in caves etc – which is what some like to suggest ‘greens’ want us to do. What we are saying though is ‘hang on a minute, we are trashing the planet by consuming the way we do and in the process not actually getting that much happier anyway’. If that’s the case this opens all sorts of exciting opportunities for rethinking how we measure success in society and how we go about things. Firstly we need to – and can – do things far more efficiently. And secondly we can open up debate at a national and individual level about shifting from an obsession with consumption to an obsession with community and spiritual enrichment.

This isn’t about hugging trees and doing things the old-fashioned way In fact the very opposite – its about moving around in something far far more efficient than 100 year old internal combustion engine driven cars. It’s about cutting edge new technology like fuel cells. Its about setting up the market right so that people can buy a low emission car at a reasonable price – and maybe one that looks good as well.  And there are huge sources of energy and materials sitting around untapped in the reservoirs of energy efficiency and material recycling and reuse.

We have the chance for the UK to be driving not following in the next industrial revolution – the green revolution. Doing things more efficiently – ten times more efficiently – is quite possible. Its being done already by some pioneers but we need to make this standard practice. We need to make the UK greener, leaner and more efficient. Waste of all kinds should become a thing of the past. 

What does all this mean in practical terms? It means we can still enjoy having our needs met but by looking at things from a different perspective we might decide that actually what we are after is connectivity not travel and so we might decide to work from home three days a week. We might also decide to think twice about whether we really need that new positional item that the TV adverts seems to be encouraging us to buy – maybe we’ll spend the money instead on something more meaningful or even not spend it at all and take some unpaid leave to spend more time with the family.

There are plenty of people thinking in this way already. Witness the rash of moving to the country and other down-shifting TV programs. Witness the evidence that more and more young people are focusing less on how much they earn and more on how they enjoy their job and how far they have to commute. 

We are not – as some are suggesting – saying we should do away with GDP as a measure. What we are saying is that it might make sense to factor in other things than just GDP and economy to the way decisions are made at a national, local, community and individual level. How about if on the News at Ten as well as the health of the economy we heard about indicators of the health of society and the health of the planet?

In the quality of life review we are therefore recommending to David Cameron and the Conservative Party that they commit to developing new measures of societal and environmental wellbeing to sit alongside economic measures and help us make those crucial decisions which will dictate not only how happy we are but also the kind of society and planetary health we leave to our children and their children.

We are living in a time of great change. We now know that we need to cut at least 80% of the carbon out of our economy in my lifetime. That’s a huge change. But its also a time to be excited about the opportunity that such a need for change represents. In Chinese the characters for Crisis combines Risk and Opportunity.

Now we know the risks things like climate change represent and that we have to make some radical changes just think what opportunities that offers us.

Jules Peck, Director of the Quality of Life Commission