The idea of a ‘Wellbeing Economy’, an economy that pursues human and ecological wellbeing instead of material growth, has gained support over the last number of years amongst businesses, policymakers, and civil society. Several governments have adopted it as a guiding framework to design development policies and access economic and social progress.
A Wellbeing Economy reframes how societies define and measure progress by broadening the range of indicators used. It goes beyond traditional economic indicators like Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to include a range of new indicators that capture and track wellbeing, happiness, social cohesion, and other aspects of health.
GDP does not consider the impacts of our economic activity nor the need to protect, restore and regenerate the natural environment that massively contributed to the economy.
Focusing on well-being emphasises health promotion, disease prevention, and tackling factors that influence and shape our health, like housing, clean air, food, and systemic inequality.
Therefore, a Wellbeing Economy can improve the health of people and our environment while also bringing about substantial healthcare savings.
The Wellbeing Economy paradigm shifts from consumption and material production as the primary goal of economic development to embrace a range of environmental and social dynamics instead, challenging the idea of traditional growth models.
In other words, it shouldn’t be viewed as an increment in material consumption but rather an increment in multidimensional well-being. With this in mind, a Wellbeing Economy uses a ‘positive language’ of wellness, conviviality, and abundance, with the goal of establishing a forward-looking narrative of opportunities for human creativity, therefore inspiring collective action and making governments more amenable to policy change.
This approach has already gained momentum. For instance, the Welsh government introduced a Future Generations Act, which legally mandates the consideration of long-term well-being in policymaking and public services. The New Zealand government brought in a Wellbeing Budget, placing the environment and wellbeing at the core of nature policy.
In these cases, the key is to use social, fiscal, and environmental indicators to guide funding. Ireland has been developing a Wellbeing Framework since 2021. It includes 35 indicators across 11 dimensions encompassing equality, sustainability, and quality of life and will be reviewed in 2026. However, it is not a robust framework, and the country should focus on enhancing it to adhere more to the concept of the Wellbeing Economy to make a meaningful shift.
The most significant example of the Wellbeing Economy’s policy impact has been the establishment of the Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo), a G7-like forum consisting of countries that have adopted wellbeing economies as their economic policy framework. This was instigated by the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, a global network of civil society organisations.
Defenders of economic growth have argued that more consumption and material production are necessary to enhance living standards. However, studies have also shown that there is very little correlation between well-being and growth after a certain threshold of basic needs is met. The Wellbeing Economy framework draws inputs from ecological economics, planetary boundaries and social needs, happiness studies, and the socio-economic determinants of health.
Advocates of a Wellbeing Economy dispute that the current economic system responds to the needs of the planet and humanity in ways that don’t address the heart of problems and do not make life better for all.
They envision a system instead where solutions are people-centred, geared towards environmental regeneration and protection and long-term sustainability. In the case of climate, a Wellbeing Economy would see the increased adoption of Circular Economy principles in manufacturing and resource use, for example.
Additionally, climate crisis mitigation would also be prioritised as well as focusing on climate justice to ensure the burden of mitigation and adaptation is shouldered by those most responsible.
Another example of assessing how a Wellbeing Economy would impact life is the food system. In this new way, advocates say that food would be locally grown, regenerative, and cruelty-free, there would be a fair value share throughout supply chains, and plant-based diets would become more common.
A Wellbeing Economy would also help us move away from our current take, make, waste linear economic system to a circular one with extended producer responsibility and products reflecting environmental cost.
Besides materials, mental health plays a vital role in creating a well-being society where people would be enabled to thrive and better understand and value their relationship to nature.
Implementing a Wellbeing Economy requires a fundamental system change where well-being is placed at the heart of strategy but the promise of a better life for all certainly presents a strong case for action.
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Written by Bronagh Loughlin, journalist
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