Rethinking sufficiency: changing our lifestyles and the world of work

300 years of sustainability – it’s the birthday of an idea. But despite the Rio Declaration on Sustainable Development, which Germany also signed, and a broad public sustainability discussion, further efforts are needed in Oeko-Institut’s view so resources and energy can be used in the future without destroying ecosystems and the climate.

Our consumption patterns have hardly been sustainable to date: transport is increasing, meat consumption is growing and energy consumption is rising. In addition to the well-established sustainability strategies of efficiency and consistency – i.e. achieving the same level of consumption through using fewer resources or alternative technologies – ideas are therefore needed to change consumption patterns themselves. In technical jargon this is referred to as “sufficiency”. Above all policy makers are challenged to act, as Oeko-Institut has established in a recent analysis.

Sufficiency? Examples of more sustainable consumption

Sufficient behaviour has many facets. For example, sufficiency encompasses buying or using fewer – resource-intensive – products (e.g. foregoing long-distance journeys, travelling more often by bike instead of by car, eating less meat), consuming products of a smaller size, with fewer functions or less comfort (e.g. a smaller flat, a car without air conditioning). However, it can also involve more environmentally-friendly user behaviour (e.g. driving at a slower speed on motorways), longer use of products before replacing them (e.g. not changing your cell phone every year) or joint use (e.g. sharing a car with neighbours) when ecologically advantageous.

Sufficiency needs a political framework

In its research on the topic of sufficiency, Oeko-Institut determined that a change of behaviour alone is not enough. Rather, changes are needed in many areas: technologies, markets and infrastructures, knowledge, values and guiding principles. To this end, policy makers must set the framework conditions for the economy and consumers to interact in the necessary way.

“Only if the environmentally-friendly behaviour of the individual is promoted and not, for example, obstructed can there be fundamental change,” says Franziska Wolff, a social scientist at Oeko-Institut. “Policy makers must encourage and promote sustainable behaviour. There are a number of possible ways to achieve this, which should be combined with tried and tested instruments.”

Political instruments: careful consideration needed

In its study Oeko-Institut proposes that political measures should increasingly promote sufficient behaviour alongside efficiency and consistency in future. There are already starting points for bringing this about, e.g. bike-friendly urban planning, local collaborative consumption, eco-taxes, product standards or extended warranty periods. These need to be systematically expanded.

In principle, interventions should be in proportion to the potentials for environmental benefits. As regards the design of instruments, the legislator must always carefully consider the factors of personal freedom, constitutional limits, social acceptance and effects on the economy. Additionally, the disproportional burdening of lower incomes also needs to be avoided.

Sufficiency is more than foregoing things

Examples of sufficiency show that foregoing some things (e.g. not getting from A to B as quickly) can mean gaining a greater quality of life (choosing healthier ways of getting around, not having to deal with traffic jams). In view of the costs and conflicts associated with technological development in some cases, sufficiency can sometimes be, also socially, the simpler, cheaper and easier – and ultimately the more elegant – solution.

“We also see that gains in efficiency are frequently counterpointed by increases in consumption,” says Dr. Corinna Fischer, an expert on sustainable consumption at Oeko-Institut. “Televisions are becoming more efficient, but also larger and much more. In order to limit the consumption of natural resources to a sustainable scope that can be universalized, we need long-term, structural changes in our behaviour in addition to efficiency and consistency.”

Further information

Oeko-Institut’s short background paper on sufficiency policy (in German)

Working Paper “When less is more – Sufficiency: Need and options for policy action”

Working Paper “When less is more - Sufficiency: Terminology, rationale and potentials”

Contact at Oeko-Institut

Franziska Wolff
Deputy Head of Environmental Law & Governance Division
Oeko-Institut, Berlin office
Phone: +49 30 405085-371
Email: f.wolff@oeko.de

Dr. Corinna Fischer
Senior Researcher
Sustainable Products & Material Flows Division
Oeko-Institut, Freiburg Head Office
Phone: +49 761 45295-223
Email: c.fischer@oeko.de