Sustainable sufficiency - an internally consistent version of sustainability

Abstract

Sustainable development has achieved widespread acceptance throughout the world as an appropriate goal for humankind. Applying the concept at both government and corporate levels has proved difficult due in part to an inherent conflict between the ecological, social and economic dimensions contained within contemporary interpretations of sustainable development. This paper describes a version of sustainability that provides clear and unambiguous direction for decision makers. Replacing the typically Western neoclassical economic perspective contained within most interpretations of sustainable development with a Buddhist perspective of economics leads to an internally consistent version of sustainability referred to as sustainable sufficiency. A study of a decision process within an organization operating within a sustainable development framework is used to provide contrast with decision making within a sustainable sufficiency framework. A conclusion of this paper is that the sustainable sufficiency concept reinforces the view that neoclassical economic principles provide a barrier to achieving the social and ecological objectives contained within contemporary interpretations of sustainable development. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Sufficiency or efficiency to achieve lower resource consumption and emissions? The role of the rebound effect

“…Eco-efficiency strategies cannot guarantee lower resource consumption and emissions. Sufficiency is therefore increasingly discussed as a strategy to achieve this [11][12][13][14][15][16][17]26]. At first sight sufficiency strategies appear to guarantee lower resource consumption and emissions.…”

“…Consequently, more recently eco-sufficiency (see Table 1) has gained attention as a possible alternative to lower environmental pressures through self-imposed restriction of consumption [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. While the rebound effect has previously been primarily discussed in relation to ecoefficiency it is now also linked to eco-sufficiency and the existence of the rebound effect in the context of individual eco-sufficiency has even been called a certainty [14].…”

Local Management of a Global Commons? The Case of Climate Standard Development in the Swedish Food Sector

“…Nevertheless, it shows that voluntary complexity-reducing initiatives may promote awareness and ambitions regarding climate, but that it is also difficult to deviate from prevailing unsustainable perspectives and priorities. In order to balance local interests and power with global and intertemporal values, which includes reaching absolute emission cuts, change in societal norms (Hay, 2005;Lamberton, 2005) as well as support from other institutional layers (e.g. government policy and international agreements) would be needed.…”

Confronting the ‘sustainable-growth’ fallacy impeding the realization of sustainable development and sustainable cities

“…The Commission introduced the idea that realizing sustainable development would require paying equal attention to the economic, ecological, and social dimensions of sustainability. Sustainable-development literature abounds with references as to the need to integrate, synthesize, harmonize, or balance these three dimensions of sustainable development [5][6][7]. However, despite the appeal of a three-dimensional view of sustainable development, it has been claimed that many applications of the concept prioritize economic considerations over ecological and social concerns, resulting in sustainable development remaining a predominantly economic concept [7].…”

“…Sustainable-development literature abounds with references as to the need to integrate, synthesize, harmonize, or balance these three dimensions of sustainable development [5][6][7]. However, despite the appeal of a three-dimensional view of sustainable development, it has been claimed that many applications of the concept prioritize economic considerations over ecological and social concerns, resulting in sustainable development remaining a predominantly economic concept [7]. Others support this viewpoint by noting the usual dominance of economic concerns under sustainable development [8], the prominence within sustainable-development literature of views that give critical importance to economic advances in achieving sustainability [9], and the role of political reality in giving primacy to the economy in sustainable-development programs [10].…”