The Sustainable Wellbeing Research Group advances research on the relationships between climate, environment, sustainability, and wellbeing.
By understanding the factors that influence sustainable behaviours and wellbeing, we aim to develop innovative solutions that promote positive societal and environmental outcomes. Our research is funded by national and international funding bodies, and we collaborate with a wide range of academic and non-academic partners.
Our key research themes are summarised below.
Promoting Sustainable Behaviours.
Changing human behaviours and lifestyles is a key part of meeting global sustainability targets. Through our research we explore the factors that lead people to engage in both sustainable and unsustainable practices. This spans behaviours such as adopting sustainable diets, active transport, and materialistic consumption. This work helps us to devise interventions to promote large scale adoption of sustainable behaviours.
Healthy Environments Across the Lifespan.
Human actions impact our environment, but environments also influence human behaviour and wellbeing. Environments are also not just physical, but social too. Through our research we examine how environmental factors influence human actions and wellbeing across the lifespan. This includes projects looking at the built environment, nature engagement, and specific environmental factors such as pollution levels.
Wellbeing in the Climate Crisis.
Awareness of the climate crisis and its consequences can have severe detrimental effects on individual wellbeing. We conduct research to explore the different ways in which human mental health and wellbeing can be impacted by living within a climate crisis. Our aim is to identify successful means of enhancing human wellbeing whilst also encouraging care for the environment, looking at factors such as ecotherapy, gardening, mindfulness, and flow.