Mindful Climate Action is an educational and behavior change program designed to help people decrease their carbon footprints while enhancing their personal health and happiness. Our interdisciplinary team, consisting of physicians, scientists, and environmental advocates, has spent several years designing the Mindful Climate Action (MCA) program, which is now also known as Mindful Eco-Wellness: Steps to Healthier Living.

The MCA team has published seven peer-reviewed papers.  We started with a description of the health threats that climate change poses, and then described our mindfulness-based approach towards improving personal health while lowering carbon footprint. The paper by Maggie Grabow et al. portrays the results of our first feasibility/demonstration project.  An article by Tom Bryan describes the development of a dietary intake environmental impact calculator. Most recently, Bruce Barrett wrote one paper on health and sustainability co-benefits of transitioning towards plant-based diets, and led another reviewing the state of the science and providing an update on our experience with Mindful Eco-Wellness in Wisconsin.

Teaching Videos

For the first pilot, UW scientists came to the class and gave mini-lectures to the students. We have now made videos of those talks, which you can view here:

Educational Resources

Other Resources

Contact Us

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Learn More

If you would like more information about the program please contact Bruce Barrett, MD, PhD at bruce.barrett@fammed.wisc.edu or Mary Checovich at mary.checovich@fammed.wisc.edu.

MCA 8 Week Program

Mindful Climate Action trainings consist of eight weekly, 2 to 2.5 hour group sessions, complemented by daily mindfulness practice focused on concepts, experiences, and behavioral choices relevant to carbon footprint and climate change. The Mindful Climate Action program will help people drive less, walk and bicycle more, reduce household energy use and overconsumption, and eat less meat and more plant-based foods.

The goal is to improve health and happiness while reducing carbon footprint.

This behavioral training wellness program combines mindfulness-based meditation practice with college-level education on climate change, energy use, and carbon footprint. Mindfulness research has substantially grown over the last decade, indicating that mindfulness interventions have great potential to effect behavior change, but the connection between mindfulness and carbon footprint has yet to be tested.