7 Ways to Make Yourself Happy While Saving the Planet

The majority of North Americans have strong feelings about climate change, but those feelings are mostly unpleasant—anxiety, sadness, anger, confusion, frustration, and guilt. Well-intentioned attempts to spur action often amplify those negative feelings with alarming statistics about how much worse things are getting. This can lead to a sense of helplessness, and research findings suggest such approaches can actually make things worse (see Cialdini et al., 2006).

Is there a happier path to a healthier planet?

Maybe there is a better way to go. In an engaging new book integrating insights from positive psychology and the science of sustainability, UBC psychologists Liz Dunn and Jiaying Zhao suggest we focus on green choices that make ourselves feel happier (rather than guiltier or angrier).

Liz Dunn is a positive psychologist (who famously found that spending money on other people makes us happier than spending on ourselves - see "Are you spending money in ways that make you unhappy?"). Jiaying Zhao is an expert on the psychology of sustainability. Their book Leave the lights on: How joyful decisions can save our species is full of research-based hints about how to make yourself feel good while acting to save the planet. It's also full of facts about the shockingly high carbon impact of some everyday choices, such as buying new jeans, or choosing beef over tofu for lunch (for info on carbon impact of daily choices check out Wynes and Nicholas 2017, and this website from University of Michigan).

Dunn and Zhao's new book.

Source: Dunn and Zhao, used with permission

Here are a few suggestions for saving the planet and making yourself happier at the same time:

1. Get out of the traffic jam

Commuting is not only unpleasant, but it raises your blood pressure. When I asked the authors, they put biking instead of driving at the top of their green happiness list. My son Dave and I both gave up our parking passes, not only saving $700 a year, but also incentivizing us to take a nice daily bike ride (instead of driving in traffic to pay $16 for a hard-to-find parking space). Going completely car-free is an option in some places; and given the costs of car payments, insurance, gasoline, auto repairs, and parking, it could be cheaper for many of us to take an Uber, use local mass transit, and rent an electric vehicle for any long car trips.

2. Save money and hassles with a stay-cation

Getting on a jet plane has an exceptionally big carbon footprint, and it's also often unpleasant. Yet most people haven't visited the tourist attractions and great restaurants in their own areas. Renting a room at a local hotel, or setting a local vacation agenda from home, saves the hassle of air travel—missed flights, cramped seats, overpriced airport food and drinks, lost luggage, jetlag, and thousands of dollars in flight costs. If you must fly, the authors note that taking direct flights and using only carry-on luggage can reduce your carbon footprint.

3. Trade some threads with the neighbors

I was amazed to discover that the fashion industry generates twice the global emissions of all airline flights and shipping combined. Jeans are a particularly environmentally toxic purchase, generating massive amounts of carbon and wasting immense amounts of water. Dunn and Zhao's suggestions including buying fewer new clothes, or joining a group that gives clothing to one another. Most of us have lots of clothes we hardly ever wear that someone else might enjoy, and they might have something we’d like, especially if it were free.

4. Get your retirement funds out of hidden fossil fuel investments

I was surprised to learn that about 20% of money invested with a major bank is invested in the fossil fuel industry (even though those are not particularly good investments these days). Author Jiaying Zhao suggests looking for the best green banks in your area at https://bank.green/sustainable-eco-banks/.

5. Eat more fruits and vegetables

If you choose a spicy tofu and veggie dish instead of cheesesteak, or a blueberry and almond butter smoothie over a chocolate ice cream bar, you’ll not only make yourself healthier and leaner, but you’ll also reduce your carbon footprint. The authors describe one restaurant that used to list their meat option first, then their fish option, with vegetarian options "available on request." Hardly anybody chose the veggie option, and the meat dish was most popular, but when they put the veggie option first, there was a dramatic reversal in what customers ordered. At home, they suggest taking fruits and veggies out of those hidden bins at the bottom of the fridge, and putting them front and center so they turn into meals rather than science projects. You don’t have to go full vegetarian to make a big impact, but as the authors suggest, you can “make meat a treat.”

6. Act locally

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed thinking about petrochemical industry lobbyists blocking the path of global progress in Washington, D.C. But many important decisions are made locally. Regional public commissions can close local coal plants, for instance, and city councilors can vote in better bike lanes. So, a little time spent contacting local politicians can have an outsized impact.

Environment Essential Reads

The Psychology of Minimalism

Seeing Green: Nature Immersion Has Its Benefits

7. Make saving the world a social event

It feels good to hang out with other people, and neighbors really influence one another (about whether to buy solar panels or electric cars, for instance). Many of their suggestions involve teaming up with friends and neighbors—carpooling, clothes trading, and healthy group lunches, for example. Combining this suggestion with the last one, another of Dunn and Zhao's favorite suggestions is to host a voting party before local elections (where voting is less likely but each vote counts a lot more).

Besides being full of great ideas, I found the book a sheer pleasure to read. After self-indulgently reading mysteries for the last week, I expected it might be onerous to get through an academic book, especially on a topic that oftens makes me feel guilty, angry, and anxious. But I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was harder to put down Dunn and Zhao’s book than those mysteries I’d been reading. And reading Leave the Lights On made me feel a lot more hopeful and happy. Given that I live in the “Valley of the Sun,” I’m now looking into getting solar panels for my house. Following the last recommendation above, I’ll be sure to put them on the street-facing side, so my neighbors can see them.