26May 2020
Is there a link between mindfulness and sustainability?

Is there a link between mindfulness and sustainability? A new paper explores this…….

Thiermann U, Sheate W (2020), Motivating individuals for social transition: The 2-pathway model and experiential strategies for pro-environmental behaviour and well-being Ecological Economics (in press) (2020)

Is there a link between mindfulness and sustainability?  Well, there is certainly an ever-growing literature in this field trying to explore it. 

Ute Thiermann (a PhD student at Imperial College London) and Bill Sheate (Associate Director, CEP) have just published a theoretical framework for understanding what might be the complex web of relationships between mindfulness and pro-environmental behaviour. In other words, people’s awareness, desires, willingness and ability to act in the present to change the impact they have on the environment.

The literature points to lots of possible links; the challenge is to prove whether being mindful makes people more likely to take pro-environmental action, i.e. to prove causality.  And if so, why?  Is it because of a greater sense of connectedness with nature that comes with mindfulness?  Or does more connectedness with nature enable you to be more mindful? And how might environmental behaviour link with personal well-being and good mental health?

The paper lays the groundwork for testing new experiential strategies in order to understand whether mindfulness programmes might be helpful as potential policy interventions for motivating people to change their behaviour in ways that can reduce impact upon the world’s environment. 

A fruitful area for future research……

You can access the paper here.

For more information, please contact Bill Sheate (Associate Director).

Team CEP
12Oct 2018
CEP examining pro-environmental behaviours

CEP contributing to study on awareness, attitudes and behaviours relating to the environment

CEP, in partnership with Adranda, have been commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to examine pro-environmental behaviours that individuals, institutions or organisations can take to reduce their impact on the environment.

CEP’s role in the project is to conduct an evidence review on pro-environmental behaviours. The first stages to the evidence review are focussing on the subject areas of gardening and food purchasing practices that can support and enhance the environment, whilst in tandem connecting people to nature and addressing the environmental impacts of food. 

Previously the project developed a longlist of environmental behaviours that has been explored in workshops with experts in the field. The review process is being supplemented with interviews and a further workshop with key stakeholders. The project began in January and will come to a close at the end of 2018. For more information, please contact Dr Clare Twigger-Ross.

Team CEP