The Ecological Footprint of Happiness: A Case Study of a Low-Income Community in the City of São Paulo, Brazil

Biagio F. Giannetti (), Rose Reis De Souza, Marcos J. Alves-Pinto, Cecília M. V. B. Almeida, Feni Agostinho and Luca Coscieme
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Biagio F. Giannetti: Post-Graduation Program on Production Engineering, Paulista University, São Paulo 04026-002, Brazil
Rose Reis De Souza: Post-Graduation Program on Production Engineering, Paulista University, São Paulo 04026-002, Brazil
Marcos J. Alves-Pinto: Post-Graduation Program on Production Engineering, Paulista University, São Paulo 04026-002, Brazil
Cecília M. V. B. Almeida: Post-Graduation Program on Production Engineering, Paulista University, São Paulo 04026-002, Brazil
Feni Agostinho: Post-Graduation Program on Production Engineering, Paulista University, São Paulo 04026-002, Brazil
Luca Coscieme: Hot or Cool Institute, 10829 Berlin, Germany

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 19, 1-10

Abstract: An ecological footprint is an accounting tool that reports the balance between resource supply and demand to assess environmental sustainability. Among the many available indicators of social progress, happiness reflects how a person feels about their quality of life. We combined these two approaches to assess the ecological efficiency of social performance in the low-income community of Felicidade, in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2019. We assessed the ecological footprint and gross domestic happiness (GDH) through questionnaires. We found that the community has a lower environmental footprint than higher-income communities in Brazil. However, the per capita ecological footprint in the community is still above what is available per person globally. We found that the community has a high level of life satisfaction (GDH = 0.86) and that the main contributor to happiness is health, time use, psychological wellbeing, education, good governance, and community vitality. The results suggest that other contributors unrelated to income are more robust determinants of happiness. In Brazil, despite higher footprints characterizing higher-income communities, further efforts in low-income communities are needed to reduce environmental footprints, ensure dignified income, and nurture the underlying conditions for high levels of happiness and social capital.

Keywords: ecological footprint; happiness; gross domestic happiness; social capital; low-income community; environmental sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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