Environmental behaviours within ecological and social limits: Integrating well-being with behavioural research for sustainability

There is a pressing need to reduce inequalities and bring everyone above a foundational level of well-being whilst simultaneously staying within planetary boundaries. Yet, there is a limited understanding of how moving into and maintaining such ‘safe and just’ spaces affect environmental behaviours. To fill this gap, we argue for integrating human well-being and behaviour research. In particular, to 1) implement social thresholds when investigating environmental behaviours; 2) investigate the impact of social inequalities on environmental behaviours directly and 3) incorporate well-being domains with controlled behavioural experiments. Such understandings will be crucial for anticipating the implications of realising safe and just spaces for people and the planet.

Chaigneau, T. and C. Schill. 2022. Environmental behaviours within ecological and social limits: Integrating well-being with behavioural research for sustainability. Current Opinion in Environ­mental Sustainability 57:101201.