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Wellbeing is how individuals, communities and the planet are impacted by multiple intersecting factors.
The idea of a “wellbeing economy” is one that prioritizes quality of life over the quality of the economy and offers a different vision of progress. Through the work featured here, we aim to share insights about how to build economies that work holistically in service of people and the environment. Contemplating wellbeing through this lens may lead us to rethink the purpose of the economy.
In most societies, our vision for how lives improve is centered on economic growth, defined today through market-based valuation of consumption and production. Concepts like “GDP” and “the health of the economy” have become ends in themselves, rather than a means to greater collective wellbeing. This is a problem as economic growth, as it is defined today, will always have environmental costs. Economic growth doesn’t inherently promote aspects of wellbeing, like health and safety, community, equity, and hope.
We define wellbeing as how individuals, communities and the planet are impacted by multiple factors that often intersect. These include social, political, cultural, economical, environmental and structural systems. Our goal is to distill the knowledge of movement builders, leaders and practitioners across diverse sectors of wellbeing into insights that can educate others in their collective commitment to deliver social justice and dignity on a healthy planet. We anticipate this will also serve to enhance the depth of storytelling around wellbeing and bring its importance and interconnectedness to light.
> Wellbeing brings the interdependency of INDIVIDUALS, COMMUNITY, and the PLANET into clearer focus.
Wellbeing is about more than the individual. We have a growing, but still incomplete, appreciation of the invisible links between humans and the planet. Wellbeing broadens our understanding of how individual people thrive and how much of that thriving is dependent on community and interconnected systems.
> Wellbeing broadens our understanding of HOW INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE AND THE PLANET THRIVE, beyond economic growth.
The concept of wellbeing has already shifted how many fields understand their challenges and practices. Medicine and public health shifted from understanding health as not the absence of disease but the presence of wellbeing in a person or community. This fundamental shift in turn spurred research and action on multidimensional, integrated concepts such as the social determinants of health and planetary health. Despite progress within these fields and others, our institutions, policies, and mental models remain deeply siloed and narrow.
> Wellbeing offers a HOPEFUL VISION FOR THE FUTURE and an economy that respects planetary boundaries.
In most societies, our vision for how lives improve is centered on economic growth, defined today through market-based valuation of consumption and production. Concepts like “GDP” and “the health of the economy” have become ends in themselves, rather than a means to greater collective wellbeing.
This is a problem as economic growth, as it is defined today, will always have environmental costs. Economic growth doesn’t inherently promote aspects of wellbeing, like community, equity, and hope. The idea of a “wellbeing economy” that prioritizes quality of life over the quality of the economy offers a very different vision of progress.
> Wellbeing approaches consider the COLLECTIVE AND ARE INTERGENERATIONAL acknowledging how actions can impact wellbeing and equity over time.
Wellbeing ensures there is fair and just access to opportunities so that all communities can thrive now and in the future. When equity is centered in wellbeing, these approaches consider how solutions are addressing historical and structural inequities and aim to the greatest extent not to recreate systems of harm. This includes attention to consistently measure systemic drivers of wellbeing inequity in a way that can guide solutions from generation to generation.