A Happy Planet

How does happiness play a role in design? Of the twelve values in RNL’s Design for One Earth framework – happiness tends to get a lot attention. People value happiness. Yet, happiness is hard to measure, hard to define and hard to predict. None the less, happiness is an important pursuit in design and we should work to advance our understanding and application of it. 

Design for One Earth asks us to consider things from both a local and global perspective. Globally there has been considerable research on happiness including the World Database on Happiness, which claims to be a “continuous register of scientific research on subjective appreciation of life”, and the Happy Planet Index, which is “an index of human well-being and environmental impact.”

NPR foreign correspondent, Eric Weiner, recently wrote a book on his travels to a wide variety of places in search of happiness. He starts with the World Database on Happiness and discovers a world where happiness is connected to place. His book, “The Geography of Bliss” is a recommended read on this topic.

I like the idea behind the Happy Planet Index which ranks nations based on a simple formula (Life Satisfaction (0-10) TIMES Life Expectancy (in years) DIVIDED BY Ecological footprint per capita (in global hectares)). This index actually bundles happiness and health and then adjusts for environmental impact. So you can’t be too happy if you are consuming resources as if we have five earths. Based on the Happy Planet Report, the world is not a very happy place.

The Happy Planet Index lets you take the system to an individual scale by completing a personal online assessment.  I couldn’t help but give it a try. It would help if I lived in the UK, because the survey assumes this. So after I get my income converted to Euros and my weight to Kilograms I get the results of my report. I score a 74.8. The good news is that I am higher than the world average of 46 and certainly much higher than the average American at 22.8. The bad news is that the survey says I should aspire to be at least an 83 “which represents a good life that doesn’t cost the earth”. The survey appears to make some pretty broad assumptions and strives to be user-friendly even if the results are less accurate. Yet the survey does hit home how personal lifestyle choices impacts sustainability, health and happiness – and that there is always room for improvement. I would encourage everyone to try the survey yourself.

So from a lifestyle perspective, sustainability is about happiness – and captured in the Design for One Earth question, “Can we live abundantly within the limits of One Earth?” Sustainable design for the built environment makes an impact - enabling lifestyles that promote health, well-being and happiness, while lowering our footprint.