The past half century has seen dramatic lifestyle changes for people in affluent countries. Per person, GDP in the UK has risen nearly four-fold. Each of us consumes more, has more stuff, benefits from abundant technology and transport, there is more diverse food and better housing, and we live longer.

Yet there is a worrying fact: average wellbeing and happiness across whole populations has not changed over 50 years.

This seems odd. Every government in all affluent countries wants their economy to grow; all engage in collective panic when material consumption slows or stops. In the poorest countries, of course, more consumption is good. It means food, shelter, water, education, transport. Yet after about $10,000 (£6,300) per capita GDP, the returns for wellbeing flatten off.

One explanation for this is that material consumption also produces many costly side effects on both human health and the natural environment. It gives with one hand and takes away with the other. The external costs of modern living have risen dramatically. Now we have to spend to solve the problems created by the very material consumption we thought was solely good. The costs of conditions and diseases caused by modern lifestyles are eye-watering. We have calculated that seven conditions – mental illness, dementia, obesity, physical inactivity, diabetes, loneliness and cardiovascular disease – now cost Britain’s NHS £60bn a year and result in £184bn of costs to the whole economy. The revenue expenditure of the NHS is some £100bn annually.

Many of these costs are avoidable. This is an opportunity for business, but it will need new thinking. Put another way, a substantial financial dividend could be released by a greener and healthier economy that emphasises healthy food, regular engagement with nature and physical activity, the enhancement of social bonds, and attention to creating healthy minds.

A priority is to substitute activities that increase both environmentally-sustainable consumption, to save the planet, and non-material consumption behaviours, to increase wellbeing and reduce health costs.

As part of this, I suggest there are two priorities for business: firstly, they must identify actions to improve the wellbeing and health of the workforce, as greater wellbeing improves productivity, engagement and retention. Secondly, they must identify the new goods and services they could develop that would drive greener and healthier economies.

For the first, this means incentivising behaviours that improve wellbeing, for example healthy food, more physical activity, greater engagement with natural places, more volunteering and probably fewer hours at work. Across the OECD countries, those with the lowest hours worked per year have the greatest wellbeing; long hours might look clever but appear counterproductive.

For the second, this means identifying greener consumption opportunities that result in a competitive advantage while improving the planet’s natural capital. Less material consumption is not the end of business and the economy as we know it. In health, early interventions produce the greatest returns. Britain’s Chief Medical Officer has estimated that there is a 6–10% rate of return on early life interventions. In other words, spend to prevent. Waiting until someone is ill with a lifestyle-related condition such as diabetes or obesity results in economic activity that looks good in GDP terms, but this is a falsehood.

So where do we start?

Key questions

• What will finally transform transport and energy sectors?
  
• What will result in food and drink consumption being healthy for all?
  
• What will encourage whole populations to be sufficiently physically active in the course of every working day?
  
• What early interventions in schools and communities will produce healthy and active adult workforces to old age?
  
• What new and greener materials can be used in supply chains and production processes?
  

In all big transitions, there are losers as well as winners. Leadership in governments will also be essential. What is abundantly clear is that great reserves of expenditure await unlocking and redirecting. Less material consumption is not the end for business, it is the beginning of a new world.

Business as usual is not an option. The world economy cannot survive as it is currently configured, around high material consumption and negative impacts on natural capital and health. We may be seeing signals from the future already. First or early movers have an advantage, but this needs courage to think and act differently. Disruptor technologies and ideas can change whole categories and sectors, perhaps even the world economy. Much is just waiting to be discovered and invented.

Keeping people content with high wellbeing will save economies real money, and unlock new efficiencies and greater productivity. It might save the planet too.

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