Robert G. Jones

Psychology of Sustainability is the first book of its type. Like a few other books dealing with sustainability, it answers Rachel Carson’s call to focus not on our relationship with nature, but rather on ourselves. However, Psychology of Sustainability does so from an applied psychology perspective, focusing on what has already been shown to “work” when trying to change human decision making and behavior in real world settings, such as work, politics, classrooms, courtrooms, and actual communities. To understand what gave rise to this approach, it helps to understand where the author comes from.

After careers in music, banking, and psychological consulting, Bob Jones joined the faculty of Missouri State University, where he taught Personnel Selection and Assessment, Environmental Psychology, and Statistics. Growing up, Bob was active in civil rights and environmental issues from a very early age, including living in Yellowstone National Park, where his Father served as a Ranger during the Summer months. These experiences, and his continued engagement in consulting work for public, non-profit, and for-profit organizations, have given Bob an unusual perspective on how to work with difficult human motivation and decision processes in real world settings.

Bob has taken the additional step of answering the call to stand for office, in the interest of managing issues of sustainability and inclusion through political decision making and action. Through his work as a non-partisan, volunteer City Council member in Springfield, MO, Bob was able (among other things) to help write Federal policy as a member of the Steering Committee of the Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Committee for the National League of Cities. Many of the lessons he has learned in these roles are integrated with the psychological perspective he takes in Psychology of Sustainability.