To thrive on this finite planet humans need to reduce material and energy consumption by over 80%, and do so, most likely, by mid-century. The need for such a radical change in our behavior derives from an expectation of diminishing and, eventually, leveling material and energy abundance, and an appreciation of the climate disruption caused by our consumption.

Such a transition will be historically unprecedented, but it need not be a collapse, nor a return to a distant past. It will involve giving up business-as-usual thinking and the misdirected hope that, given time, we can return to normal. It will require our adapting to a more appropriate pace. Transitioning to a sustainable patterns of living requires using a psychology of transitions. We must plan for, motivate, and maintain radical, yet perhaps delightful, behavior change starting with each of us, where we are, now.

Interests

1. Planning for foundational sustainability: Transitioning to the local.

We can use localization's environmental, psychological, and institutional compatibility with a viable and wholesome existence on a finite planet.

2. Motivating environmental stewardship: Living lightly.

We can draw on older forms of motivation to promote environmentally responsible behavior, including the unique strengths of intrinsic motivation and competence.

3. Maintaining human wellness: Using nature, tranquility and activity as medicine.

We can be supported by the powerful effect on human well-being of nearby nature, in all its many forms, year-round, even in northern climates. We can understand, as Thomas Jefferson did, that wellness derives not from wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation. 

As the depth of the environmental dilemmas being faced are realized, there are increasingly vigorous efforts to promote sustainability. While sustainability has proven difficult to define, it is usually operationalized as ensuring that societal actions protect and preserve natural resources and that ecological systems are not disrupted. In this definition humans are often envisioned as the source of the problems being faced. Thus, this version of environmental sustainability includes the close monitoring and manipulation of human behavior.

A more enlightened definition imagines people as recipients of Earth's bounty; this more positive definition recommends crafting environmental management strategies to allow current societal needs to be met without diminishing the ability of future generations to meet their needs. It even promotes ecological restoration. This is a much improved definition, yet even it falls short. It focuses more on maintaining a sustainable flow of materials and energy rather than on also increasing human well-being. In many ways it is similar to defining human health as merely an absence of illness.

What is needed is an even more enlightened definition of sustainability, one that preserves and enhanced ecosystem functions and social systems, and their interaction. But it must also provide for a positive balance across all aspects of a person — body, mind and spirit. This vision of sustainability must include individuals living meaningful, resilient, and tranquil lives. A shorthand for this notion is sustainable living.

Sustainable living involves a dual focus; promoting environmental stewardship while also promoting the stewardship of human wellness. Both outcomes are available, in part, from everyday physical and mental engagement with the natural world. Sustainable living does seek to promote conservation behavior for the purpose of protecting and improving the environment. But just as important is the need to reframe environmental planning as about deep human wellness. How we envision, plan, design, and live in the nearby environment will change dramatically in the coming post-carbon world.

Selected Research

1. Workshop on Localization: Co-convener with Professor Thomas Princen.
2. Some psychological aspects of Green Care initiatives.
3. Mental effectiveness as a precondition to environmental stewardship.

Current Teaching

Behavior and Environment - An introduction to environmental psychology (Environment 360, Psychology 384 and Natural Resources and Environment 560) that examines human-environment interactions with a natural resource focus. The course develops an information processing model of human nature and then uses this model to explore human decision making, the settings humans most prefer, and how they cope with non-preferred settings and how they maintain mental clarity and attentional vitality.

Psychology of Environmental Stewardship - A course (Environment 361, Psychology 385 and Natural Resources and Environment 561) that explores research on the psychology of environmental stewardship and creates a toolbox of approaches for promoting durable conservation behavior. Includes the study of the relationship between psychological well-being and time spent in natural settings.

Localization Seminar - A graduate seminar (Natural Resources and Environment 701 and 662) that takes as given that societies soon will be operating on drastically less energy and material. Furthermore, industrialized, growth and consumption oriented societies will need to go through a rapid transition. The seminar provides evidence for this assumption but does not dwell on it. Rather, the seminar focuses on (a) what localization is (we presume that it is already happening around us), (b) what it can be (both good and bad), and (c) what it should be (if the transition is to be peaceful, democratic, just, and resilient).

Selected Publications

• De Young, R. 2000 Expanding and evaluating motives for environmentally responsible behavior. In Zelezny, L. and P. W. Schultz [Eds.] Promoting Environmentalism. Journal of Social Issues. 56: 509-526.
• De Young, R. 1996. Some psychological aspects of a reduced consumption lifestyle: The role of intrinsic satisfaction and competence. Environment and Behavior. 28:358-409.
• De Young, R. and M. Monroe. 1996. Some fundamentals of engaging stories. Environmental Education Research. 2:171-187.
• Kearney, A. R. and R. De Young. 1995. A knowledge based intervention for promoting ride sharing. Environment and Behavior. 27:650-678.
• De Young, R. 1993. Changing behavior and making it stick: The conceptualization and management of conservation behavior. Environment and Behavior. 25: 485-505.
• De Young, R. and S. Kaplan. 1988. On averting the tragedy of the commons. Environmental Management. 12: 283-293.
• De Young, R. 1986. Some psychological aspects of recycling: The structure of conservation satisfactions. Environment and Behavior. 18: 435-449.
• De Young, R. 1985-1986. Encouraging environmentally appropriate behavior: The role of intrinsic motivation. Journal of Environmental Systems. 15: 281-292.