Conceptualising sufficiency: A revised version of a theoretical paper setting out how the project conceptualises social-ecological sufficiency is in preparation. Here a focus has been placed on the resolution of ‘characteristic tensions in sufficiency thinking (e.g. the tension between sufficiency as a means or an end; as determined by the individual, or collectively; as a single determinable point, or as existing within some upper and lower limits. This framework has also been used in several setting (e.g. a special workshop session at the SCORAI conference on sustainable production and consumption) to map how academics working on sufficiency position themselves with regards to those tensions. This has led to an online survey tool that we are currently in the process of finalising to map more broadly how academia understands the notion of sufficiency.
Estimating ecologically sufficient levels of household consumption: Considerable work has been undertaken to prepare secondary environmentally extended input output data to make it possible to map ecologically sufficient levels of household consumption to four planetary boundaries (water, climate, land use and biochemical flow). This has included ensuring that the databases are compatible with household survey data, our own representative survey deciding on how to downscale planetary boundaries and how to distinguish between household and non-household consumption. A review paper on the methods available for such work is published (Godoy Leon et al 2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2025.04.015(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)) and several other papers are currently in preparation. In order to increase the spatial resolution of this analysis we have decided to combine the EXIOBASE and REX databases, which requires additional data cleaning, adjustment and synchronisation.
Qualifying social sufficiency at the household level: Considerable work has gone into developing a representative survey quantify German households’ notions of sufficient consumption across multiple different consumption categories. The survey will be carried out (n = approximately 2000 households) in October 2025. The development of the survey was in part based on detailed qualitative interview undertaken throughout 2024 andnsiderable work has been undertaken to ensure the survey is both understandable for normal household to answer, while remaining compatible with the modelling approaches to quantify ecological sufficiency (via planetary boundaries).
