Culture of sustainability
People are more than consumers. The political objective of growing our purchasing power should be replaced with providing the conditions for everyone to live decent and happy lives without overshooting the limits of our planet. Policies should be put in place to limit the promotion of ecologically and socially harmful consumption patterns. For instance, instituting a ban on advertisements encouraging such consumption patterns will help promote what really matters: building healthy and thriving communities.
In modern western societies, the pursuit of happiness and life satisfaction has long been intertwined with the concept of consumption. But, more is not always better. Studies indicate that a point of saturation exists beyond which consuming more is not improving our well-being. In technical terms, there is a diminishing return on happiness beyond a certain level of material acquisition. This challenges a prevailing belief that more consumption inherently leads to greater life satisfaction.
It is actually good news that there exists a standard of living that is ‘enough’. Because changes to consumption patterns will be important to reduce the negative impact on the environment. Embracing sustainable practices is crucial for addressing environmental concerns.
To live in a sustainable culture we need to break free from the false promise that we can buy happiness and status for example by getting our hands on expensive and scarce items (‘positional goods’). Instead, emphasis could be placed on intrinsic goals rooted in community and family. Recent research highlights that such a shift can significantly enhance overall social welfare.
The advertising industry has fueled the consumerist culture by bombarding us daily with streams of unfulfilled desires. Not only that, ads are also known for spreading misleading or even false claims about environmental, health and social impacts. The tobacco industry is a notorious example, but this also applies to many energy, food, pharma and fashion businesses today. Citizens deserve access to accurate and truthful information to make informed decisions. Regulation or even ad-bans of misleading advertisements for harmful products are possible ways to address this issue. In addition, mainstream media should rigorously cover the extent of, and efforts to address the ecological emergency to counteract denialism and misinformation.
Beyond curtailing dishonest advertising, there is a pressing need to incentivize and promote a cultural shift that values flourishing in non-materialistic terms. Encouraging the repair economy, advocating and facilitating shared use, and promoting sufficiency in consumption are examples of alternative paths toward well-being that do not rely solely on increased material possession. Exploring these alternative ways, it turns out ‘enough’ can also be beautiful and desirable!
This explainer is not necessarily endorsed by all coalition partners
Further reading
Jackson, T., 2009. Prosperity without growth? The transition to a sustainable economy.
Bärnthaler, R. and Gough, I., 2023. Provisioning for sufficiency: envisaging production corridors. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, 19(1), p.2218690.
Hüttel, A., Balderjahn, I. and Hoffmann, S., 2020. Welfare beyond consumption: The benefits of having less. Ecological economics, 176, p.106719.
Veenhoven, R., Chiperi, F., Kang, X. and Burger, M., 2021. Happiness and consumption: A research synthesis using an online finding archive. Sage Open, 11 (1).