How will we use our time in a postgrowth future of sustainable wellbeing

Seán Fearon, Ben Gallant, Angela Druckman, Simon Mair and Lirong Liu
Ecological Economics, Vol 251 | Sept 2026

Abstract

Time use analysis is an accessible and intuitive method for building an understanding of the greenhouse gas emissions footprint of lifestyles, and the ways in which these lifestyles impact our enjoyment and wellbeing. This study develops a novel methodology to estimate the emissions footprint and experienced wellbeing of daily life in 2050 in three global north countries (Finland, France, and the UK) from a time use perspective. Our modelling utilises time use analysis, experienced wellbeing data, direct emissions data, environmentally extended multiregional input-output analysis (MRIO), and scenario building. We first construct an ambitious 2050 scenario assuming a move to sufficiency-based household consumption of commodities and energy, dietary change, systemic changes to transport habits, technological change and cleaner production, and energy efficiency improvements. Despite modelling these ambitious changes out to 2050, we estimate that the emissions intensity of global north lifestyles will remain outside planetary boundaries. We then model experienced wellbeing and emissions in three time use scenarios, or ‘lifestyles’, for all three countries to understand how time use changes can improve wellbeing and lower lifestyle emissions. These scenarios are shaped by insights from functional time use theory (FTU), with further insights from the provisioning systems literature. We find that, though it is possible to improve our wellbeing and lower emissions through lifestyle change, further radical transformations are required to provisioning systems to bring emissions footprints within planetary boundaries. Moreover, without this transformation, some socially positive changes to time use may have unintended negative environmental effects.

This page previously hosted the preprint information for this paper, and has now been updated to reflect the peer-reviewed publication.

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