IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jresou/v6y2017i4p67-d120772.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Much Environment Do Humans Need? Evidence from an Integrated Online User Application Linking Natural Resource Use and Subjective Well-Being in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Johannes Buhl

    (Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, 42103 Wuppertal, Germany)

  • Christa Liedtke

    (Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, 42103 Wuppertal, Germany
    Department of Industrial Design, Folkwang University of Arts, 45224 Essen, Germany)

  • Katrin Bienge

    (Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, 42103 Wuppertal, Germany)

Abstract

We present the results of a regression analysis of a large-scale integrated user online application that surveys natural resource use and subjective well-being in Germany. We analyse more than 44,000 users who provided information on their natural resource consumption (material footprint) as well as their personal socio-economic and socio-psychological characteristics. We determine an average material footprint of 26 tonnes per person per year. In addition, we endeavour to determine how much environment humans need by regressing natural resource use as well as relevant socio-economic and socio-psychological features on subjective well-being. We establish a slightly negative correlation between subjective well-being and material footprints. A higher material footprint is associated with lower subjective well-being. We conclude that consumer policies seeking to promote sustainable behaviour should highlight the fact that a lower material footprint may result in greater subjective well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Johannes Buhl & Christa Liedtke & Katrin Bienge, 2017. "How Much Environment Do Humans Need? Evidence from an Integrated Online User Application Linking Natural Resource Use and Subjective Well-Being in Germany," Resources, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-13, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jresou:v:6:y:2017:i:4:p:67-:d:120772
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/6/4/67/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/6/4/67/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Lettenmeier & Christa Liedtke & Holger Rohn, 2014. "Eight Tons of Material Footprint—Suggestion for a Resource Cap for Household Consumption in Finland," Resources, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-28, July.
    2. Enste, Dominik & Ewers, Mara, 2014. "Lebenszufriedenheit in Deutschland: Entwicklung und Einflussfaktoren," IW-Trends – Vierteljahresschrift zur empirischen Wirtschaftsforschung, Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft (IW) / German Economic Institute, vol. 41(2), pages 43-58.
    3. Andersson, David & Nässén, Jonas & Larsson, Jörgen & Holmberg, John, 2014. "Greenhouse gas emissions and subjective well-being: An analysis of Swedish households," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 75-82.
    4. Manfred Lenzen & Robert A. Cummins, 2013. "Happiness versus the Environment—A Case Study of Australian Lifestyles," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-19, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Johannes Buhl & Christa Liedtke & Sebastian Schuster & Katrin Bienge, 2020. "Predicting the Material Footprint in Germany between 2015 and 2020 via Seasonally Decomposed Autoregressive and Exponential Smoothing Algorithms," Resources, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-17, October.
    2. Baltruszewicz, Marta & Steinberger, Julia K. & Paavola, Jouni & Ivanova, Diana & Brand-Correa, Lina I. & Owen, Anne, 2023. "Social outcomes of energy use in the United Kingdom: Household energy footprints and their links to well-being," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Claborn, Kelly A. & Brooks, Jeremy S., 2019. "Can We Consume Less and Gain More? Environmental Efficiency of Well-being at the Individual Level," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 110-120.
    2. Herziger, Atar & Claborn, Kelly A. & Brooks, Jeremy S., 2020. "Is There Hope for the Double Dividend? How Social Context Can Shape Synergies and Tradeoffs between Sustainable Consumption and Well-Being," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    3. Nicholas Apergis, 2018. "The Impact of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on Personal Well-Being: Evidence from a Panel of 58 Countries and Aggregate and Regional Country Samples," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 69-80, January.
    4. Baltruszewicz, Marta & Steinberger, Julia K. & Paavola, Jouni & Ivanova, Diana & Brand-Correa, Lina I. & Owen, Anne, 2023. "Social outcomes of energy use in the United Kingdom: Household energy footprints and their links to well-being," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    5. Chenoweth, Jonathan & López-Avilés, Alma & Morse, Stephen & Druckman, Angela, 2016. "Water consumption and subjective wellbeing: An analysis of British households," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 186-194.
    6. Lena Kilian & Anne Owen & Andy Newing & Diana Ivanova, 2022. "Exploring Transport Consumption-Based Emissions: Spatial Patterns, Social Factors, Well-Being, and Policy Implications," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-26, September.
    7. Echeverría, Lucía & Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto, 2022. "Green mobility and well-being," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    8. Joseph Anthony L. Reyes, 2021. "How Different Are the Nordics? Unravelling the Willingness to Make Economic Sacrifices for the Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-31, January.
    9. Ryu Koide & Lewis Akenji, 2017. "Assessment of Policy Integration of Sustainable Consumption and Production into National Policies," Resources, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-21, September.
    10. Omri, Anis & Omri, Henda & Slimani, Sana & Belaid, Fateh, 2022. "Environmental degradation and life satisfaction: Do governance and renewable energy matter?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    11. Mònica Guillen-Royo, 2018. "Sustainable consumption and wellbeing: does on-line shopping matter?," Working Papers on Innovation Studies 20181022, Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo.
    12. Verhofstadt, E. & Van Ootegem, L. & Defloor, B. & Bleys, B., 2016. "Linking individuals' ecological footprint to their subjective well-being," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 80-89.
    13. Jamil Khan & Roger Hildingsson & Lisa Garting, 2020. "Sustainable Welfare in Swedish Cities: Challenges of Eco-Social Integration in Urban Sustainability Governance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, January.
    14. Jingru Liu & Haotong Wu & Xin Tian & Heming Wang & Yinglei Wu, 2022. "Materials footprint of household consumption in China," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(4), pages 1504-1513, August.
    15. Christa Liedtke & Katrin Bienge & Klaus Wiesen & Jens Teubler & Kathrin Greiff & Michael Lettenmeier & Holger Rohn, 2014. "Resource Use in the Production and Consumption System—The MIPS Approach," Resources, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-31, August.
    16. Christopher L. Ambrey & Peter Daniels, 2017. "Happiness and footprints: assessing the relationship between individual well-being and carbon footprints," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 895-920, June.
    17. Luc Van Ootegem & Elsy Verhofstadt & Bart Defloor & Brent Bleys, 2022. "The Effect of COVID-19 on the Environmental Impact of Our Lifestyles and on Environmental Concern," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-14, July.
    18. Anis Omri & Henda Omri & Sana Slimani & Fateh Belaid, 2021. "Environmental degradation and life satisfaction: Do governance and renewable energy matter?," Post-Print hal-04542645, HAL.
    19. Yulin Liu & Min Zhang & Rujia Liu, 2020. "The Impact of Income Inequality on Carbon Emissions in China: A Household-Level Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-22, March.
    20. Vita, Gibran & Ivanova, Diana & Dumitru, Adina & Mira, Ricardo García & Carrus, Giuseppe & Stadler, Konstantin & Krause, Karen & Wood, Richard & Hertwich, Edgar, 2019. "Happier with less? Members of European environmental grassroots initiatives reconcile lower carbon footprints with higher life satisfaction and income increases," SocArXiv 3at5z, Center for Open Science.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jresou:v:6:y:2017:i:4:p:67-:d:120772. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.