How can conditions be created for decent living standards for all without exceeding planetary limits?

Energy and climate policies have tended to focus on the promotion of energy efficiency and renewable energies, but there is no evidence that these measures alone will be able to meet climate and sustainable development goals. This special issue explores what the concept of sufficiency means for the built environment - both as a floor (minimum) and a ceiling (maximum) to ensure a "good life". Sufficiency is explored in many interconnected issues such as land use and density, space usage (size and adaptability), sharing of goods, services and spaces, and space conditioning (heating, cooling and ventilation) for health.

Guest editors: Tina Fawcett, Sarah Darby & Marlyne Sahakian

The papers in this special issue contribute to shared understandings around sufficiency among diverse actors including professionals and members of civil society; how studies aim at assessing the potential of sufficiency measures; what efforts are being made to learn from and build on existing sufficiency measures, as well as initiatives that seek to experiment with sufficiency; and what conceptual advances are being put forward relevant to sufficiency research and action.

In addition to energy, some papers in this special issue focus on one of the most difficult discussions around sufficiency in housing: reducing housing space per person. It is feasible to frame sufficiency as a way to promote wellbeing and the good life i.e. live better while consuming less.

Other papers help to chart future directions for research and action by relating to theories of justice, focusing on elite consumption, or considering ways to engage in sufficiency with existing material and institutional arrangements.

There is likely to be increased demand for reliable basic modern energy services from hundreds of millions of people who do not yet have access to them. How can these be met in ways that avoid the huge environmental and social costs of the last two centuries? The question of justice is integral to these reflections, particularly justice in recognition - of vulnerabilities, of limited agency, and of unacknowledged over- and under-consumption

Table of contents

Energy sufficiency in buildings and cities: current research, future directions [editorial]
M. Sahakian, T. Fawcett & S. Darby

Living smaller: acceptance, effects and structural factors in the EU
M. Lehner, J. L. Richter, H. Kreinin, P. Mamut, E. Vadovics, J. Henman, O. Mont & D. Fuchs

Are people willing to share space? Household preferences in Finland
E. Ruokamo, E. Kylkilahti, M. Lettenmeier & A. Toppinen

Sufficiency, consumption patterns and limits: a survey of French households
J. Bouillet & C. Grandclément

Imagining sufficiency through collective changes as satisfiers
O. Moynat & M. Sahakian

Provide or prevent? Exploring sufficiency imaginaries within Danish systems of provision
L. K. Aagaard & T. H. Christensen

'Rightsize': a housing design game for spatial and energy sufficiency
P. Graham, P. Nourian, E. Warwick & M. Gath-Morad

US urban land-use reform: a strategy for energy sufficiency
Z. M. Subin, J. Lombardi, R. Muralidharan, J. Korn, J. Malik, T. Pullen, M. Wei & Tianzhen Hong

Operationalising energy sufficiency for low-carbon built environments in urbanising India
A. Lall & G. Sethi

Operationalising building-related energy sufficiency measures in SMEs
I. Fouiteh, J. D. Cabrera Santelices, A. Susini & M. K. Patel

Implementing housing policies for a sufficient lifestyle
M. Bagheri, L. Roth, L. Siebke, C. Rohde & H.-J. Linke

Promoting neighbourhood sharing: infrastructures of convenience and community
A. Huber, H. Heinrichs & M. Jaeger-Erben

New insights into thermal comfort sufficiency in dwellings
G. van Moeseke, D. De Grave, A. Anciaux, J. Sobczak & G. Wallenborn

Energy sufficiency and recognition justice: a study of household consumption
Alice Guilbert

Structural barriers to sufficiency: the contribution of research on elites
M. Koch, K. Emilsson, J. Lee & H. Johansson

Promoting practices of sufficiency: reprogramming resource-intensive material arrangements
T. H. Christensen, L. K. Aagaard, A.K. Juvik, C. Samson & K. Gram-Hanssen