Leisure, well-being, and sustainable lifestyles : A study to explore relationships between leisure activities and global warming potential in Sweden.

Abstract: Studies show that leisure activities can contribute significantly to people’s well-being. Still, theycan also impact the environment in several ways as they contribute to greenhouse gas emissionsrelated to different factors. When modifying lifestyles towards more sustainable behaviors, peoplecan sometimes expect reductions in their well-being, but this relationship is not much exploredfor what concerns the activities that people engage in within their free time. By further exploringthis literature gap, this study research leisure activities - namely those activities when theindividuals have the most control over their chances of action - as a potential pathway forimplementing more sustainable behaviors in an individual lifestyle that can also improve one’sown well-being. By employing questionnaires and a life cycle assessment approach – the aim is todescribe i) what leisure activities people in Sweden engage with to promote their well-being, ii)what are the most important ones and the main benefits obtained from them, and iii) what impact,in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, these activities have on the climate. The results show thatsome common leisure activity types are important for Swedes to maintain their well-being. Thesecan have different environmental impacts in terms of greenhouse gas emissions depending onactivity-related factors such as location, frequency, and equipment and material resources utilizedduring the activity. We conclude that leisure activities that people consider more important fortheir well-being are also those that could potentially have the lowest impact in terms of greenhousegas emissions and that more quantitative studies could explore this relation further.