"It'll take 50 years for us to realize that our institutions are rooted in an inaccurate understanding of the world... And that's when we will need to reinvent and recreate institutions for the human family that are rooted in ... the context of sufficiency." Buckminster Fuller, 1976.
What is Sufficiency?
According to the IPCC, sufficiency is defined as "as avoiding the demand for materials, energy, land, water and other natural resources while delivering a decent living standard for all within the planetary boundaries.
Decent living standards are a set of essential material preconditions for human well-being which includes shelter, nutrition, basic amenities, health care, transportation, information, education, and public space. Sufficiency addresses the issue of a fair consumption of space and resources.
Sufficiency differs from efficiency, which is about short-term technological improvements that allow doing more with less in relative terms without considering the planetary boundaries. Sufficiency is about long-term actions driven by non-technological solutions, which consume less and are determined by the biophysical processes.
Demand-side sufficiency measures have the potential to reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in by 40% to 70% by 2050, yet these are not being implemented effectively. We believe that the reason for this is that market-based solutions, which dominate the climate sector, typically involve selling a technology or service that can be monetised and consumed, whereas sufficiency involves the reduction in consumption, and is therefore being ignored, despite its potential for impact.
How does the Sufficiency Challenge work?
GoZero members set themselves a monthly savings target ($5, $15, $25), make a donation to the GoZero Foundation, and then use recommended sufficiency strategies to save this money by reducing consumption. This is beneficial to the planet, has the potential to reduce overshoot of several planetary boundaries simultaneously, and provides funding for community resilience building and systems change efforts to provide decent living standards for all. Members can also claim a 33.3% tax credit for their donations, as a further sweetener! It's Win-WIn-Win.