TY - JOUR

T1 - Sustainability Strategies: What's in a Name?

T2 - A Conceptual Restatement of Fundamental Mechanisms Toward Sustainability

AU - Hartmann, Eric

PY - 2025

Y1 - 2025

N2 - Efficiency, consistency, and sufficiency are repeatedly discussed under the umbrella term sustainability strategies. However, their use is rather intuitive yet vague, lacking a conceptual foundation. This is particularly problematic as sustainability challenges necessitate effective and fast implementation of all strategies at hand. A deep conceptual understanding of such strategies is necessary but not yet provided by existing research. Therefore, this paper introduces a framework of sustainability strategies, founded on an explicated working conception of sustainability. On this basis, five intergenerational sustainability strategies targeting environmental impacts are discussed (population reduction, sufficiency, efficiency increase, consistency increase, regeneration expansion). Additionally, the paper introduces five intragenerational sustainability strategies targeting the intragenerational dimension of justice inherent in sustainability (capability empowerment, equalization, eco-efficiency increase, impact expansion, population reduction). For each strategy, potential contributions, limitations, and examples for practical implementation are briefly sketched. The main contribution of this paper is the introduction of a conceptually grounded framework of sustainability strategies. The framework may motivate further empirical studies regarding the importance of sustainability strategies in diverse contexts, as well as the practical implementation of all feasible strategies to face recent sustainability crises.

AB - Efficiency, consistency, and sufficiency are repeatedly discussed under the umbrella term sustainability strategies. However, their use is rather intuitive yet vague, lacking a conceptual foundation. This is particularly problematic as sustainability challenges necessitate effective and fast implementation of all strategies at hand. A deep conceptual understanding of such strategies is necessary but not yet provided by existing research. Therefore, this paper introduces a framework of sustainability strategies, founded on an explicated working conception of sustainability. On this basis, five intergenerational sustainability strategies targeting environmental impacts are discussed (population reduction, sufficiency, efficiency increase, consistency increase, regeneration expansion). Additionally, the paper introduces five intragenerational sustainability strategies targeting the intragenerational dimension of justice inherent in sustainability (capability empowerment, equalization, eco-efficiency increase, impact expansion, population reduction). For each strategy, potential contributions, limitations, and examples for practical implementation are briefly sketched. The main contribution of this paper is the introduction of a conceptually grounded framework of sustainability strategies. The framework may motivate further empirical studies regarding the importance of sustainability strategies in diverse contexts, as well as the practical implementation of all feasible strategies to face recent sustainability crises.

KW - Sustainability Science

U2 - 10.1002/sd.3443

DO - 10.1002/sd.3443

M3 - Journal articles

JO - Sustainable Development

JF - Sustainable Development

SN - 0968-0802

M1 - sd.3443

ER -