The quest for sustainability will make us better human beings:

Fostering stoicism:

For consumers, sustainability will require some type of sacrifice: foregoing products they loved or paying a “green premium”—that is, a higher price with respect to normal products—for more sustainable products. In fact, consumer goods’ have to pay 15 - 20% more for products considered sustainable (Gates, 2021). The aforementioned behaviors will be pushed by regulation, but consumers that can achieve them in an autonomous manner will develop a desirable human trait: the ability to undergo present unpleasantness in the sake of a greater, broader good. But restriction comes with a benefit: the consumption experience of a good is 15 – 20% more likely to be perceived as meaningful when a sustainable product is in question (Venhoeven, 2020).?The quest for sustainability will expand our perception of a good life beyond mere pleasure.

Expanding our empathy:

A key concept in the quest of sustainability is that of inter-generational right. The idea that people that have not yet been born are subjects of fundamental human rights. In that way, living human beings are not the only with rights to water or other resources, but also future generations. Embracing this fact requires a huge leap in empathy: we need to amplify our ability to care beyond people we know and expand it to those that do not even exist. In fact, individuals who are aware of a variety of belic conflicts happening around the world are up to 50% more likely to self declare as “sustainability driven” that those who don’t (Berenguer, 2010). The quest for sustainability makes us more caring human beings.

Forgoing our ego:

The way we experience reality—that is, through individual consciousness—creates the perception that every single of us is at the center of reality. Furthermore, the human species has put itself at the very center of the universe: we have shaped earth ecosystems towards pur apparent convenience and we have created religions where humans are the center of god’s cosmology. The quest for sustainability requires abandoning such an anthropocentric view, requiring us to assign value to nature independently from human use and utility. And in the process of doing so, we need to level up nature’s interests to the same level as human interest. The quest for sustainability will foster our humility as it will force us to accept that we are not at the center of everything. In fact, people with higher self reported solidarity are more likely to be considered as eco-centric (as opposed to anthropocentric) across a series of tests

Creating a more mindful existence:

Mindfulness is usually conceptualized across five dimensions: to observe,?to non react, to non-judge, to act with awareness, and to describe.

Observation will allow to acknowledge and embrace the negative human negative impacts on earth and develop a sense of urgency. Description will allow us to understand the patterns behind those facts. Non-reactiveness, in contrast, will allow us to embrace facts about climate risk without panic and to develop the calm that will allow us to act rationally. Awareness will allow us to examine our future actions more deeply, enabling us to give up harmful behavior that in the past were conscious about. Non-judgment, finally, will allow us to look at ourselves with compassion, acknowledging that our past, harmful actions towards earth do not reflect our real morality as human beings. And in the process of doing so, it will allow us to recognize that we will be capable of acting in a more principled way in the future. The quest for sustainability will allow us to be more mindful human beings. In effect, research papers studying the relationship between mindfulness and sustainability has tripled in the last ten years. 90% of them find a positive correlation between both dimensions (Thiermann, 2021)

Although consumers will be in part responsible for this change in mentality,?companies can promote it too: ensuring that incentive structures and institutional rules favour sustainable behaviour, nudging pro-environmental choice in how they present alternatives to consumers, engaging people in corporate initiatives to help themselves, and exemplifying the desired changes within the company’s culture.?