Phinney author and simplicity expert Cecile Andrews, a member of Sustainable Greenwood Phinney, is teaming up with local KCTS film producer John de Graaf, (“Affluenza”), to explore the effects of happiness on the economy.
They’re hosting “Seattle Sunny Side Up: Gross National Happiness from Bhutan to Victoria to the Emerald City” at 7 p.m. next Monday at City Hall, 600 4th Ave., in the Bertha Landes Room.
What if happiness were the bottom line for our economy and our policies? What would Seattle look like then?
Michael Pennock of the Vancouver Island Health Authority, an expert in data research from Victoria BC, worked with the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan when the Bhutanese decided to make happiness a bottom line. He helped them develop a Happiness Survey they now use to determine policy. Now that survey is being used all over the world.
Gross National Happiness (GNH) is a framework for decision making that puts people and planet in the mix with profits.
Learn about the Pennock happiness survey and what happened in Victoria when the city took the survey and created a Happiness Index. You can take the survey yourself there.
