Mitigating climate change while ensuring that the overall consumption is kept within “planetary boundaries”, and that the required changes are “just” in the sense that the transition towards sustainable societies is intra- and intergenerationally fair, is one of our society’s major challenges (e.g. EC 2020; Sovacool et al. 2019). For this, we need to foster practices that are both environmentally sustainable and socially decent, especially in key consumption areas such as residential energy use, which contribute to one quarter of total energy consumption and carbon emissions in Europe (Odyssee 2021). In other words, we need more thorough understanding on the limits of consumption, as well as the ways these limits could be widely accepted in modern, consumerist societies.
ENUSE project (Enoughness in energy use: Sustainable and sufficient energy consumption in Finland), funded by the University of Helsinki for three years (2021-2023) responds to this call by addressing “enoughness” in everyday life, defined as socially decent and environmentally sustainable consumption. The objectives of the project are to (1) define what enoughness in everyday life and in energy consumption means, and thus (2) understand acceptability and vulnerability in the transition towards carbon-neutral energy system from the perspective of enoughness.
Enoughness, or what is “enough”, is an emerging theme in research that aims to illustrate what would socially decent, yet environmentally sustainable, consumption be like – i.e. the upper and lower limits of consumption. Despite these limits having long existed in academic discussions (see, e.g. Spangenberg 2002) and having regained political interest in recent years, especially in the forms of “doughnut economies” (Raworth 2017) and “consumption corridors” (Sahakian et al. 2021), the perspective of households, as well as a particular focus on acceptability of these limits, have thus far been missing in these discussions. Moreover, a focus on everyday life is essential for addressing the vulnerabilities linked with fundamental changes in systems of production and consumption. These are critical perspectives from the viewpoint of feasibility and inclusiveness of sustainability transitions (e.g. Heiskanen et al. 2021; Köhler et al. 2019).
More about the project:
References:
EC 2020. Launching the Just Transition Mechanism – for a green transition based on solidarity and fairness. News item, 15 January 2020. Online: ec.europa.eu/info/news/launching-just-transition-mechanism-green-transition-based-solidarity-and-fairness-2020-jan-15_en (4.8.2020)
Heiskanen, E., Matschoss, K., Laakso, S., Rinkinen, J. & Apajalahti, E.-L. 2021. Energiamurroksen jännitteet kansalaisten arjessa. Alue ja Ympäristö, 50(1), 124–138.
Köhler, J., Geels, F. W., Kern, F. et al. 2019. An agenda for sustainability transitions research: State of the art and future directions. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 31, 1–32.
Odyssee. 2021. Final energy consumption by sector in EU. Online: https://www.odyssee-mure.eu/publications/efficiency-by-sector/overview/final-energy-consumption-by-sector.html (6.9.2021)
Raworth, K. 2017. Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist. Random House Business Books, London.
Sahakian, M., Fuchs, D., Lorek S. & Di Giulio, A. 2021. Advancing the concept of consumption corridors and exploring its implications. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, 17(1), 305-315.
Sovacool, B., Lipson, M. & Chard, R. 2019. Temporality, vulnerability, and energy justice in household low carbon innovations. Energy Policy, 128, 495–504.
Spangenberg, J.H. 2002. Environmental space and the prism of sustainability. Frameworks for indicators measuring sustainable development. Ecological Indicators, 2, 295–309.