The mission statement of the Energy Saving Warehouse is to ‘Save Energy, Save Money, Save Carbon’, with the main goal being to help the UK meet their Carbon Reduction Commitments by 2020. One way that everyone can ‘Save Energy, Save Money, Save Carbon’ is to decrease the consumption of material goods. However, many people believe that reducing material consumption will decrease their happiness and are reluctant to change. The aim of this article is to summarise recent scientific research that explains why reducing material consumption will not decrease your happiness, but in fact would be more likely to increase it!
The Problem: Material Consumption
Robert Costanza, the director of the Institute for Sustainable Solutions, suggests that the majority of the current global population is ‘addicted’ to fossil fuels and overconsumption, with not enough attention being given to sustainability and future generations [1]. ‘Addiction’ suggests that you depend on something, despite it being unnecessary or harmful, and Costanza suggests that excessive material consumption fits these criteria [1].
It is a common belief that high income and material consumption (e.g. TVs, Cars, iPods) lead to happiness, explaining why so many people are reluctant to curb their desires for material goods. The whole process of material consumption, however, uses a vast amount of energy, money and carbon.
Breaking the Addiction
In order to reduce excessive material consumption and therefore ‘Save Energy, Save Money, Save Carbon’ in the UK, the first step is to break the ‘addiction’. The best way to do this is to educate the public to clearly show the benefits of breaking this habit and the high costs of remaining addicted [1]. I aim to do this by highlighting recent scientific studies on what makes people happy.
The Science of Happiness
What contributes to human well-being and quality of life?
A large amount of research has emerged on what makes people happy; a simple internet search for ‘the science of happiness’ shows just how popular and widespread this subject has become. Several books have been published on this topic and a six-part BBC documentary called ‘The Happiness Formula’ was also aired in 2006.
Research suggests the conventional view of happiness, that high economic income and consumption will produce more happiness, should be challenged [1]. The following research comes from psychologist Tim Kasser (2002 book: ‘The High Price of Materialism’) and economists Richard Easterlin, Richard Layard (2005 book: ‘Happiness: Lessons from a New Science’), and Robert Frank (2001 book: ‘Luxury Fever’):
- People that focus on income and buying material goods to become happy are less happy.
- Additionally, people that do this actually have a higher chance of physical and mental illness.
- Material consumption beyond what is needed only gives us short bursts of pleasure that quickly wears off.
- People tend to adapt quickly to improvements in their lives, encouraging them to still want more.
- People want more material possessions when they compare themselves with others who are also buying more.
- Happiness and well-being usually correlates well with health, marital status and level of education, and correlates poorly with income beyond a certain fairly low threshold.
- Overall well-being would be higher if people consumed less, spent more time with family and friends, maintained physical and mental health, and enjoyed nature.
The Impact of Reducing Material Consumption
Scientific research suggests that reducing material consumption will not decrease your happiness. Quite the contrary, your well-being could actually be improved with fewer material possessions.
Besides the positive effects on your happiness, reducing the amount of material goods you purchase will also help ‘Save Energy, Save Money, Save Carbon’. For example, the manufacture of products, their distribution and transportation, and their eventual disposal uses energy and carbon. The energy and carbon used during their lifespan also contributes to the product footprint. In addition, the material goods themselves are expensive (e.g. iPhone 4 costs over £500), not to mention the amount of money spent to maintain them.
Reducing excessive material consumption will save energy, money, and carbon, and the ‘science of happiness’ suggests that by doing so, you are also more likely to be happier. Furthermore, if we carry on using carbon as quickly as we are by consuming so many material goods, not only are we harming our own happiness, but we are also harming the happiness of our children, grandchildren and other future generations, by destroying the world they will live in.
[1] Costanza, R. (2008) Stewardship for a “full” world. Current History, p. 30-35.
To find out more about the ‘science of happiness’ a good starting point is the following BBC article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/happiness_formula/4783836.stm
