Jörgens, H., Knill, C., & Steinebach, Y. (Eds.). (2023). Routledge handbook of environmental policy—Chapter ‘Fifty Shades of Sufficiency’ (1st edition). Routledge.
The present chapter explores what “sufficiency” is and how we can assess its political diffusion. To what extent and in what ways do we find sufficiency policies being implemented? In pursuit of this question, the authors show the wide variance in definitions of sufficiency and the associated challenges in evaluating policies with respect to their sufficiency focus. They illustrate these challenges by drawing on policy examples from the consumption areas of mobility, food, and housing. At the end, they show that “true” sufficiency policies are scarce, notwithstanding the wide range of valuable policies that may contribute to some extent to its pursuit.

Hayden, A., Gaudet, C., & Wilson, J. (Eds.). (2022). Towards Sustainable Well-Being: Moving beyond GDP in Canada and the World. University of Toronto Press.
Towards  Sustainable  Well-Being  examines  existing  efforts  and  emerging  possibilities to improve upon gross domestic product as the dominant indicator of economic  and  social  performance.  Contributions  from  leading  international  and Canadian researchers in the field of beyond-GDP measurement offer a rich range of  perspectives on alternative ways to measure well-being and sustainability, along with lessons from around the world on how to bring those metrics into the policy process.

Van Den Berg, N. J. (2023). Sustainable Living in Systems Change: A holistic approach to model lifestyle changes in Integrated Assessment Models. Utrecht University.
This research aims to show how to improve the representation of lifestyle changes in Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs), to establish the possible role of lifestyle changes in climate change mitigation strategies. This thesis identifies key insights from existing literature on different approaches for analysing lifestyle changes. These insights include the harmonisation of lifestyle-related terms, different perspectives on analysing lifestyles, the broad ranges of lifestyle changes that can be modelled, the trade-offs between different modelling approaches and the tools that could help analyse the outcomes of lifestyle changes. This thesis also developed the ASIF* decomposition tool to distinguish between impacts from consumption and technology changes in the analysis of future scenarios. A vital part of the thesis is the set of developed SLIM (Sustainable Living in Models) scenarios across two critical uncertainties: more individualistic or collectivist values; and more centralised or distributed support for sustainable lifestyles. Four scenarios emerge, leading to unique, sustainable futures and just transitions.

Khanna, N. Z., Zhang, J., Lu, H., Feng, W., Johnson-Wang, M., & Zhou, N. (2023). Conceptualizing demand-side technological and social innovations in modelling pathways to carbon neutrality. Energy Research & Social Science.
Many existing decarbonization pathway studies focus more on supply-side innovations with less attention on low-energy demand (LED) innovations, and those that do often have limited focus on industry, freight transport, and broader cross-sector strategies. In this perspective, we apply the “avoid-shift-improve” framework to assess the technical potential and deployment feasibility (in terms of adoption, implementation and response) barriers of demand-side innovations. Our work illuminates potential impacts and factors that affect realization of the technical potential of individual LED innovations to support their inclusion in future global and national LED scenarios and climate policy development.

Mauger, R. (2023). Finding a needle in a haystack? Identifying degrowth-compatible provisions in EU energy law for a just transition to net-zero by 2050. Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law.
This academic article is the first to use the theoretical framework of degrowth to analyse EU energy law. To do so, it focuses on various core energy laws: the 2019 Electricity Market Directive, the 2018 Renewable Energy Sources Directive and the 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive (slightly amended in 2018) as well as the recast proposals for the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency directives tabled in the 2021 Fit for 55 package and2022 REPowerEU plan. This research shows that various degrowthc ompatible provisions already exist in EU energy law and can be harnessed in the short term, without waiting for a legal overhaul. This article also formulates recommendations, such as interpreting in a degrowth-favourable way the aforementioned provisions and challenging the current as well as forthcoming framework, for instance by amending the proposed ‘energy efficiency first’ principle to include energy sufficiency.

Lee, J., Koch, M., & Alkan-Olsson, J. (2023). Deliberating a Sustainable Welfare–Work Nexus. Politische Vierteljahresschrift.
This paper develops policy ideas for a sustainable welfare–work nexus via citizen engagement and examines the level of democratic support for such ideas. Theoretically, it employs “sustainable welfare” to understand welfare and wellbeing within planetary and social limits. The paper first sketches the welfare–work nexus as developed in the postwar circumstances in Western Europe, highlighting that this model was at no point in time ecologically generalizable to the rest of the world, and then briefly reviews the existing debate on sustainable welfare. The empirical analyses start with qualitative data from 11 deliberative forums on sustainable needs satisfaction, with emphasis on policies targeted at respecting the upper and lower boundaries of a “safe and just operating space” for economic and social development. We find a considerable gap between the far-reaching policy measures that forum participants consider necessary and the measures that the general public in Sweden are prepared to support, especially when it comes to policies targeting maximum levels of needs satisfaction.

Beyeler, L., & Jaeger-Erben, M. (2022). How to make more of less: Characteristics of sufficiency in business practices. Frontiers in Sustainability.
Sustainable transformation toward a circular society, in which all ecosystems and livelihoods are protected and sustained, requires the integration of sufficiency in circular production and consumption practices. Beyond the technological promises to decouple resource use from economic growth, sufficiency measures to reduce production and consumption volumes in absolute terms are necessary. Businesses integrating sufficiency act as agent of change to transform current unsustainable practices along the entire supply chain. By observing the operationalization of sufficiency in 14 pioneer businesses, this study identifies dimensions and practice elements that characterize sufficiency in business practices. 

Robra, B., Pazaitis, A., Giotitsas, C., & Pansera, M. (2023). From creative destruction to convivial innovation - A post-growth perspective. Technovation.
In this paper, we argue that the notion of Creative Destruction underpinning classical innovation management theory as well as having crystallised into technological determinism and productivism has come to a dead-end. Framing innovation’s ultimate goal as the endless pursuit of economic growth is unrealistic if we wish to address pressing environmental challenges. The mantra of ‘innovate or die’ and its underpinning values represent a hegemonic view on technology aligned with the capitalist mode of production. We argue that a counter-hegemonic view emphasising conviviality and use-value is possible instead and needed to address the environmental and social challenges of our time. Indicative cases show that innovation underlined by counter-hegemonic values already exists, albeit in the cracks of the dominant system and in constant danger of co-optation. Governmental institutions need to support these alternative practices of innovation.

Lawrence, J., & Mekoth, N. (2023). Demarketing for Sustainability: A Review and Future Research Agenda. International Journal of Consumer Studies.
Kotler and Levy, (1971) has defined demarketing as “that aspect of marketing which deals with discouraging customers in general or a certain class of customers in particular on a temporary or permanent basis”. This systematic literature review attempts to enrich the discussion on demarketing research through a systematic and comprehensive review of 64 articles published between 2000 and 2022, with special reference to the ‘triple bottom line’ approach for sustainability. Using TCCM framework for domain-based systematic literature review, we present relevant theories, research contexts, study characteristics, and methodologies used in demarketing research. Our systematic literature review found that research in demarketing has been growing considerably over the past two decades, twice as much in the last decade compared to the previous decade. We observed a trend in demarketing research that the tourism sector has been attracting more researchers in the last decade as compared to the healthcare sector, although healthcare sector dominated demarketing research in the previous decade. Our review identified that ‘Green Demarketing’ has been the most popular variant of demarketing in the recent times, attracting more studies in the context of sustainable consumption.

Roman, P., Thiry, G., Muylaert, C., Ruwet, C., & Maréchal, K. (2023). Defining and identifying strongly sustainable product-service systems (SSPSS). Journal of Cleaner Production.
Product-Service Systems (PSS) are widely recognised as promising models for increasing circularity and sustainability in business, but the extent to which they contribute to sustainability is still debated. While growing and insightful, the literature on PSS sustainability fails to cover all the relevant aspects and to take stock of the ways PSS can be conceptualised as contributing to strong sustainability. We contend that if PSS are to be designed to be strongly sustainable, clear guidance is needed based on both clear normative premises and sound empirical knowledge. An original analytical framework based on 5 dimensions (access, substitution, systemic dematerialisation, territorial anchoring and sufficiency) and 15 criteria of Strongly Sustainable Product-Service System (SSPSS) is proposed.

Hansen, A., & Nielsen, K. B. (Eds.). (2023). Consumption, sustainability and everyday life. Palgrave Macmillan.
This open access book seeks to understand why we consume as we do, how consumption changes, and why we keep consuming more and more, despite the visible damage we are doing to the planet. The chapters cover both the stubbornness of unsustainable consumption patterns in affluent societies and the drivers of rapidly increasing consumption in emerging economies. They focus on consumption patterns with the largest environmental footprints, including energy, housing, and mobility and engage in sophisticated ways with the theoretical frontiers of the field of consumption research, in particular on the practice turn that has come to dominate the field in recent decades.

Kropfeld, M. I. (2022). Lifestyles of enough exploring sufficiency-oriented consumption behavior from a social practice theory perspective. Journal of Consumer Culture.
Meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement requires absolute reductions of consumption levels, which implies changing consumption behavior toward more sufficiency-oriented practices. So far, these practices have mostly been researched in the areas of mobility and household-related activities. Therefore, this paper reviews sufficiency-oriented practices in other areas of consumption. A configurative literature review rendered eight relevant studies investigating nine different sufficiency-oriented consumption practices, seven of which related to clothing consumption. The meanings behind these practices stretch from altruistic, environmentally conscious motivations such as a great concern for the environment to more egoistic or economic-related motives such as saving money. First implications of using social practice theory as a heuristic to research consumption behavior indicate that sufficiency-oriented practices offer various angles and opportunities, not only through consumer education but also by providing the right materials, spaces, and skills, to support more environmentally friendly “Lifestyles of Enough”.

Sahakian, M., & Rossier, C. (2022). The societal conditions for achieving sufficiency through voluntary work time reduction: Results of a pilot study in Western Switzerland. Frontiers in Sustainability.
Can the voluntary reduction of working hours as a sufficiency practice promote more environmentally sustainable forms of consumption along with human well-being? In this exploratory study conducted at the end of 2018 in Western Switzerland, we use the social practices and systems of provision approaches and a definition of well-being based on human need satisfaction to answer this question in the context of an affluent country where women typically work-part-time after the arrival of children due to limited family policies. The article argues that sufficiency as a practice must go beyond personal motivations to consider the societal conditions that support sustainable well-being.

Yürüyen Kılıç, H., Dursun, I., & Tumer Kabadayi, E. (2023). Does Voluntary Simplicity Lifestyle Support Psychological Resilience During Crises?: Evidence From the COVID-19 Pandemic. In R. Bansal (Ed.), Advances in Psychology, Mental Health, and Behavioral Studies.
This study aims to investigate the contribution of voluntary simplicity to psychological resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic. Data were collected in Turkey through an online survey of 541 participants in the Covid-19 period. Analysis results revealed that not all but certain VSL aspects supported psychological resilience by promoting the valuation of life, mental health, and alleviating boredom during the pandemic. Material independency appeared as the most prominent VSL value contributing to psychological resilience. Findings revealed that a high valuation of life and high mental stress during the pandemic motivates individuals for future simple lives. The present study enhances the current knowledge about voluntary simplicity during highly stressful periods.

Harris, E., Nowicki, M., & White, T. (Eds.). (2023). The growing trend of living small: A critical approach to shrinking domesticities. Routledge.
Small spaces have become big business. Reducing the size of our homes, and the amount of stuff within them, is increasingly sold as a catch-all solution to the stresses of modern life and the need to reduce our carbon footprint. Shrinking living space is being repackaged in a neoliberal capitalist context as a lifestyle choice rather than the consequence of diminishing choice in the face of what has become a long-term housing “crisis”. What does this mean for how we live in the long term, and is there a dark side to the promise of a simpler, more sustainable home life?

Wågström, A., & Michael, K. (2023). Caring for energy, energy to care: Exploring the energy-care nexus through examples from Sweden and India. Energy Research & Social Science.
As the climate crisis continues to grow, there is an increasing focus both in research and policy spaces on the need and urgency of energy transitions. In this perspective, we urge scholars, policymakers and social movements to recognize the ways that care work and practices of care are intersecting with everyday experiences of energy use. Through case studies from India and Sweden, we depict how care activities and energy use intertwine in people’s daily lives in ways that are often deeply gendered.

Winkler, L., Pearce, D., Nelson, J., & Babacan, O. (2023). The effect of sustainable mobility transition policies on cumulative urban transport emissions and energy demand. Nature Communications.
We assess the effectiveness of several widely considered policy options (electrification, light-weighting, retrofitting, scrapping, regulated manufacturing standards and modal shift) in achieving the transition to sustainable urban mobility in terms of their emissions and energy impact until 2050. Our analysis investigates the severity of actions needed to comply with Paris compliant regional sub-sectoral carbon budgets. We introduce the Urban Transport Policy Model (UTPM) for passenger car fleets and use London as an urban case study to show that current policies are insufficient to meet climate targets. We conclude that, as well as implementation of emission-reducing changes in vehicle design, a rapid and large-scale reduction in car use is necessary to meet stringent carbon budgets and avoid high energy demand.

Rode, P. (2023). Fairness and the Sufficiency Turn in Urban Transport. Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy.
This commentary considers the research and policy implications of applying the sufficiency principle to urban transport. It explores “enoughness” against a backdrop of increasing carbon emissions in the transport sector, inevitable ceilings for resource intense movement, and the essential requirement of providing access to opportunities in cities. Given the relative lack of progress, increasingly polarizing political debate and urgent requirement for change, this commentary advocates for a more direct and open engagement with a sufficiency turn in urban transport. Most importantly, fundamental questions about a fair distribution of remaining emissions and finite street space within the transport sector must be considered. 

Bobinaite, V., Konstantinaviciute, I., Galinis, A., Pazeraite, A., Miskinis, V., & Cesnavicius, M. (2023). Energy Sufficiency in the Passenger Transport of Lithuania. Sustainability.
This paper aims to understand the significance of energy sufficiency (ES) in passenger transport for the long-term resolution of energy, climate, and sustainable development issues in Lithuania. It computes related indicators, by fixing the passenger-kilometres (pkm) travelled by various modes of transportation and applying a scenario analysis with the MESSAGE model. The findings indicated that the country’s final energy consumption (FEC) in transportation could be reduced by 21.8% by 2050 due to slowing growth rate of distances travelled by passenger car but increasing use of public transport and bicycles. 

Alberti, F., & Radicchi, A. (2023). From the Neighbourhood Unit to the 15-Minute City. Past and Recent Urban Models for Post-COVID Cities. Urban and Transit Planning.
This article critically discusses the 15-Minute City model through a review of proximity-based concepts and theories developed in the twentieth century, proposed here under the umbrella term of the Proximity City, thus tracing its historical trajectory from Perry’s Neighbourhood Unit to Calthorpe’s Transit-Oriented Development up to more recent time-based models such as the 1-Minute City. Furthermore, it scrutinizes the limits and potential of this model against four main challenges highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, namely self-sufficiency, social cohesion and inclusiveness, environmental sustainability and climate responsiveness and resilience to future health crises. In conclusion, it provides recommendations to inform future research and practice aimed at creating eco-social urban systems for post-COVID future cities.

Griggs, S., & Howarth, D. (2023). Contesting Aviation Expansion: Depoliticisation, Technologies of Government and Post-Aviation Futures. Policy Press.
This book focuses on airport expansion and aviation as a wicked policy problem to illuminate wider theoretical debates and conceptualisations about policy analysis and social and political theory. It examines the authoritative role of expert commissions in seeking to settle ongoing controversies and discusses the concept of depoliticisation in debates about current and future policy analysis. The authors construct and employ an innovative form of poststructuralist policy analysis, which is used to delineate the rival rhetorical and discursive strategies articulated by the coalitions seeking to shape public policy.

Bankert, E. (2022). Towards Energy Sufficiency in the Residential Housing Sector?: Evaluating the design and implementation of policies for living space reduction in Göttingen. Lund University.
Energy sufficiency has been recognised as a strategy to promote sustainable energy use and achieve climate neutrality. It aims to reduce energy demand in absolute terms. ‘Living Space Reduction’ (LSR) is one way to achieve energy sufficiency in the housing sector. However, existing studies highlight significant barriers to its materialisation, including the lack of funding and expert knowledge of municipalities to design and implement sufficiency policy measures. The objective of this research was to better understand the design and implementation elements of LSR policy measures that have the potential to advance LSR manifestation, taking the city of Göttingen (Germany) as a case study. Applying a conceptual framework drawing from realist evaluation and using data from semi-structured interviews with practitioners and a supporting literature review, the design and implementation of LSR policy measures were evaluated and complementing policies that can facilitate LSR manifestation were found.

Hu, S., Zhou, X., Yan, D., Guo, F., Hong, T., & Jiang, Y. (2023). A systematic review of building energy sufficiency towards energy and climate targets. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.
Among the sufficiency, efficiency, and renewable frameworks for reducing energy use and energy-related carbon emissions, Building Energy Sufficiency (BES) is gaining attention from policy makers and engineers. This study presents a systematic review of the definition and paradigm of BES and concludes that BES should address both occupant demand and energy or emissions requirements simultaneously. The characteristics of occupant demand in building services are divided into four dimensions: time and space, quality and quantity, control and adjustment, and flexibility. Technical options regarding the building architecture, the envelope system, and the building energy system are reviewed. Finally, policy implications and recommendations are discussed.

Wood, A., Moberg, E., Curi-Quinto, K., Van Rysselberge, P., & Röös, E. (2023). From “good for people” to “good for people and planet” – Placing health and environment on equal footing when developing food-based dietary guidelines. Food Policy.
We present a five-step framework for developing environmentally sustainable dietary guidelines that would simultaneously meet nutritional requirements while staying within environmental boundaries. The steps comprise: 1) determining an average healthy diet for different population groups and criteria for healthy diets; 2) identifying relevant environmental aspects and establishing corresponding boundaries; 3) identifying systemic effects and crucial sustainability aspects; 4) altering the average diet to meet environmental goals and resolve trade-offs between environmental and nutritional goals; and 5) formulating sustainable food-based dietary guidelines. To exemplify the framework, we pilot it in the Swedish context, but it could be utilised for any other country.

Hémar-Nicolas, V., & Hedegaard, L. (2023). Food sufficiency, an approach rooted in the ethics of Epicurus: Analysis framework and research agenda. Recherche et Applications En Marketing.
Against the backdrop of an ecological crisis, we must transform our consumption patterns to ensure long-term sustainability. By reducing the negative impact of our food on health and the social and biospheric environment, food sufficiency is one way to achieve this transformation. However, this raises a major question about the compatibility of food sufficiency with pleasure – that is, one traditional pillar of ‘eating well’. At the crossroads of philosophy and marketing, this theoretical research draws on Epicurus’s ethics to address this issue. It highlights the importance of Epicurean consumer value as a fundamental element of both individual and collective ‘eating well’. In addition, it proposes an analysis framework that shows how an approach to food sufficiency that prioritises the satisfaction of essential needs can provide access to this value.

Coscieme, L., Akenji, L., Latva-Hakuni, E., Vladimirova, K., Niinimäki, K., Henninger, C., Joyner-Martinez, C., Nielsen, K., Iran, S. and, & D´Itria, E. (2022). Unfit, Unfair, Unfashionable: Resizing Fashion for a Fair Consumption Space. Hot or Cool Institute.
This report contributes to filling the knowledge gap that arises from prevailing climate scenarios related to fashion. These scenarios tend to underplay the potential contributions of lifestyle changes to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and instead focus entirely or mainly on developing new  technologies and on changes in production. The report also assesses and exposes misconceptions around the climate impacts of practices that are often considered effective solutions for reducing the carbon footprint of fashion. Analysis of practices such as clothing donations and exports of second-hand clothing reveals environmental impacts that are not often considered but that are potentially net negative. 

Garcia-Ortega, B., Galan-Cubillo, J., Llorens-Montes, F. J., & de-Miguel-Molina, B. (2023). Sufficient consumption as a missing link toward sustainability: The case of fast fashion. Journal of Cleaner Production.
This study draws on the literature to build a three-pillar framework of potential strategies to enable fashion companies to foster sufficient consumption and reduce dependence on the sale of new items, with benefits expected for both consumers and companies. Subsequently, it uses multiple case study to examine qualitatively the annual reports issued during 2013–2014 and 2020–2021 by a sample of ten top companies in this segment. The goal is to assess whether these companies are embracing such strategies, what (if any) evolution occurs between these two periods, whether the 2030 Agenda with its SDG12 ‘Responsible consumption and production’ plays a mediating role in their adoption, and what is the logic behind such evolution. The results show that, although such adoption is gaining momentum, companies tend first to embrace strategies with less impact on their traditional modus operandi.

Schauman, S., Greene, S., & Korkman, O. (2023). Sufficiency and the dematerialization of fashion: How digital substitutes are creating new market opportunities. Business Horizons.
In this article, we explore the commercial feasibility of digital fashion and expose a strategically significant alignment of digital substitutes with four emerging consumer expectations, i.e., excitement, utility, relatability, and circularity. Our research shows that these expectations are contingent on consumers’ increasingly sufficiency-oriented mindset and the modes of consumption this mindset generates. By developing what we call a ‘sufficiency-model’, this article provides companies with the heuristic tools necessary to gain future-looking and practical insight that helps them navigate this dematerialization of consumption and to identify long-term market opportunities within this area.

Santarius, T., Bieser, J. C. T., Frick, V., Höjer, M., Gossen, M., Hilty, L. M., Kern, E., Pohl, J., Rohde, F., & Lange, S. (2022). Digital sufficiency: Conceptual considerations for ICTs on a finite planet. Annals of Telecommunications.
The concept digital sufficiency constitutes a basis to understand how ICT can become part of the essential environmental transformation. Digital sufficiency consists of four dimensions, each suggesting a set of strategies and policy proposals: (a) hardware sufficiency, which aims for fewer devices needing to be produced and their absolute energy demand being kept to the lowest level possible to perform the desired tasks; (b) software sufficiency, which covers ensuring that data traffic and hardware utilization during application are kept as low as possible; (c) user sufficiency, which strives for users applying digital devices frugally and using ICT in a way that promotes sustainable lifestyles; and (d) economic sufficiency, which aspires to digitalization supporting a transition to an economy characterized not by economic growth as the primary goal but by sufficient production and consumption within planetary boundaries. This article argues for comprehensive policies for digital sufficiency, which are indispensible if ICT are to play a beneficial role in overall environmental transformation.

Christian Herglotz, Werner Robitza, Alexander Raake, Tobias Hossfeld, Andre Kaup. (2023). Power Reduction Opportunities on End-User Devices in Quality-Steady Video Streaming. 15th International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience.
This paper uses a crowdsourced dataset of online video streaming sessions to investigate opportunities to reduce the power consumption while considering QoE. We find that based on the power consumption of the streaming sessions from the crowdsourcing dataset, devices could save more than 55% of power if all participants adhere to low-power settings.