Sufficiency

Sufficiency, as a third sustainability strategy, focuses on consumer and user behaviour with the goal of decreased absolute resource and energy consumption. Ifeu explores and integrates this topic in a number of projects.

The term sufficiency derives from the Latin ‘sufficere’ and may be translated as ‘to be adequate’ or ‘enough’. Sufficiency is a sustainability strategy with a key focus on the question ‘How much do we need, and why?’ It is based on a personal and societal definition of the right measure, i.e. the balance between the satisfaction of existing needs and the consumption of resources, and associated negative environmental impacts. Sufficiency seeks a change in attitudes towards time, space, market, property, and existence. Thus, a resource-light, solidary, comfortable and future-proof lifestyle and business practice may be enabled, facilitated and encouraged.

The optimised use of energy for technological applications in Germany has so far failed to produce a notable reduction of the absolute energy consumption. However, in addition to the use of renewable energy (consistence strategy), reduced consumption is essential to achieve the goals of the Energy Transition. The sufficiency strategy as a ‘cultural route’ seeks the limitation and long-term reduction of the absolute energy and resource consumption, and associated negative environmental impacts. Thus, energy sufficiency is a sustainability strategy that aims to limit or reduce the demand for energy supplied by technology through changes in technology use and other use aspects to a sustainable level.

ifeu seeks and explores approaches for energy-sufficient appliance design, alternatives for action and practice, and beneficial infrastructure to contribute to resource-light everyday life.

To avoid placing the responsibility of realizing sufficiency solely on the individual, sufficiency principles should be enabled and promoted by policy measures, instruments and frameworks. Novel measures for wealth, investment in infrastructures promoting a sufficient lifestyle, and changes in the politics of competition and distribution are among the relevant framework measures. Food policy may be designed to prevent food waste and reduce meat consumption. Road speed limits and preferential funding of parking space for car sharing vehicles may render individual car transport less attractive and promote alternatives. However, to encourage and enable citizens to engage in a more sufficient lifestyle, a number of changes in labour, education, health, consumer, transport and economic policy are required.