Sustainable happiness is “happiness that contributes to individual, community and/or
global well-being without exploiting other people, the environment or future generations”
(O’Brien, 2010a, n.p.). It underscores the interrelationship between human flourishing
and ecological resilience. At the national and international levels, sustainable happiness
has considerable relevance to the United Nations’ resolution on happiness and well-being
(United Nations, 2011). Applications of sustainable happiness are discussed, with implications
for fostering healthy, sustainable lifestyles and communities.
The active debate about how to transform education to meet 21st-century learning
needs ranges from suggestions that will merely tweak existing models through modernization,
to calls for reimagining the role of education. As educators consider the future of
education and the various visions that are promoted—such as 21st-century learning, Health
Promoting Schools programs, social and emotional learning, and entrepreneurship education—the
concept of sustainable happiness can contribute to the development of a unified
vision that fosters well-being for all, forever (Hopkins, 2013). The sustainable happiness
pre-service teacher education course described in this paper gives a glimpse of the benefits
of doing so. The paper argues that sustainable happiness represents the evolution in happiness that is needed to set the world on a more sustainable trajectory. This makes
sustainable happiness indispensable for new visions of education in the 21st century.