Project duration: 1 March 2021 to 31 December 2022

The buildings sector accounts for approximately 30 per cent of annual greenhouse gas emissions in Germany (Federal Government 2020). This figure includes both private residential buildings and commercial, retail and service sector properties. Greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector result from the consumption of fossil fuels, e.g. for heating and electricity generation. Added to this are the so-called ‘grey emissions’, i.e. the emissions generated during the ‘manufacture, construction and maintenance of buildings’ (ibid.).

With the amendment to the German Climate Protection Act in 2021, Germany has set itself the target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector by 67 per cent by 2030 compared with 1990 levels (BMWI 2021b). Germany aims to be climate-neutral by 2045 (BMWI 2021a) and, furthermore, land consumption is to be reduced to ‘net zero’ by 2050, i.e. a land-based circular economy is to be established (UBA 2021).

Against this backdrop, the SMWK research project ‘Potential of sufficiency-based utilisation concepts for a climate-neutral building stock by 2050’ is investigating strategies through which the goals of climate neutrality and reduced land consumption in the building and property sector can be achieved. The focus here is on sufficiency as a strategy for action. Sufficiency (from the Latin sufficere – to be sufficient, to be enough) is one of three sustainability strategies, alongside efficiency and consistency. Whilst efficiency aims to achieve the same output with reduced resource use, substitution involves restructuring resource use in an environmentally friendly manner (Behrendt et al. 2018), i.e. for example, replacing fossil-based raw materials with renewable energy sources. Sufficiency, on the other hand, aims to reduce resource consumption ‘by reducing the demand for goods’ (Linz 2004) or by changing ‘personal needs, requirements and desires’ with the aim of reconciling personal, societal and environmental constraints (Over et al. 2021).

In the building sector, sufficiency can be considered both at the level of the building itself and at the level of building use. Structural measures aimed at reducing resource consumption include, for example, reducing individual living space, space- and resource-efficient construction, reducing the area allocated to new developments, or the application of resource-efficient construction techniques and the use of fewer or more resource-efficient building services (e.g. Schmitt et al. 2015)

At the level of sufficient building use, the focus is primarily on social aspects that combine the resource-efficient use of buildings and land with other sustainable practices and behaviours. Examples include communal living arrangements, sharing schemes (‘using rather than owning’), multiple and mixed-use developments, or the reduction of individual living space. Sufficiency practices can also be implemented in the commercial sector, for example through new, innovative uses for vacant, inner-city commercial properties.

Sufficiency-based building and usage concepts inevitably raise the question of how much space people actually need for living, working and leisure, and what further potential for sustainability lies in ‘moderate’ land use. This is always linked to questions of acceptance regarding, for example, smaller individual living spaces, sharing practices or temporary uses, and new business and usage models in the commercial property sector, which may also be accompanied by lower profit expectations. At the same time, unlike efficiency and consistency strategies, sufficiency strategies focus in particular on individuals and the changes they need to make to their behaviour and consumption patterns (Buschmann and Sulmowski 2018). The question of under what circumstances people are willing to embrace these changes in the area of housing or other forms of building use is therefore also part of the scope of the study.

Contents of the research project

The research project ‘Potential of sufficiency-based usage concepts for a climate-neutral building stock by 2050’ uses the example of small towns in Saxony to investigate the prerequisites and framework conditions under which sufficiency-based usage concepts can be implemented in the areas of housing and commercial property use.

To this end, the first phase of the project involved a written survey on housing situations and on willingness to change one’s current living situation in future in favour of a sufficient form of housing (e.g. smaller living space or communal living arrangements).

In the second phase of the project, agile workshops will be used to investigate which sustainable usage concepts can contribute to revitalising vacant properties in the town centres of small towns in structurally weak regions. In particular, the project will also examine sustainable business models, such as mixed-use schemes, sharing concepts, co-working models or regional direct-marketing strategies. Participants in the workshops include landlords, local authorities and local politicians.

Furthermore, an intensive exchange takes place with other interdisciplinary stakeholders from business and society to explore the potential of sustainable forms of use in rural areas.

In both phases, economic, architectural and planning aspects, as well as social aspects relating to participation and social justice, are examined.

Research team

The project team takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining knowledge and expertise from the fields of sustainable construction and operation, sustainable facility management and technical building management, as well as urban sociology and social science research into acceptance.

Project Lead
: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Anika Möcker – Chair of Sustainable Construction and Operations

Academic supervision
: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Mehlis – Chair of Facility Management

Project
Implementation: Marie-Luise Baldin, M.A. – Research Associate at the Institute for Sustainability and Property Management

The research project ‘Potential of Sufficient Usage Concepts for a Climate-Neutral Building Stock’ runs from 1 March 2021 to 31 December 2022 and is funded by the Saxon State Ministry of Science and the Arts.

Bibliography

Behrendt, Siegfried; Göll, Edgar; Korte, Friederike (2018): Efficiency, Consistency, Sufficiency. A Strategic Analysis for a Green Economy. Edited by IZT – Institute for Future Studies and Technology Assessment, a non-profit limited liability company. Berlin (IZT-Text, 1-2018). Available online at www.izt.de/fileadmin/publikationen/IZT_Text_1-2018_EKS.pdf, last accessed on 11 March 2020.

Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWI) (ed.) (2021a): German Climate Protection Policy. Binding climate protection through the Federal Climate Protection Act. BMWI. Available online at www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Artikel/Industrie/klimaschutz-deutsche-klimaschutzpolitik.html, last accessed on 26 July 2021.

Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWI) (ed.) (2021b): Climate Protection Programme 2030. BMWI. Available online at www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Artikel/Industrie/klimaschutzprogramm-2030.html, last accessed on 2 September 2021.

Buschmann, Nikolaus; Sulmowski, Jędrzej (2018): From ‘Responsibility’ to ‘Doing Responsibility’. Aspects of subjectification theory in sustainability-related responsabilisation. In: Anna Henkel, Nico Lüdtke, Nikolaus Buschmann, Lars Hochmann and Anna Henkel, Nico Lüdtke, Nikolaus Buschmann, Lars Hochmann (eds.): Reflexive Responsibilisation. Responsibility for Sustainable Development. Bielefeld, pp. 281–295.

The Federal Government (BReg) (eds.) (2020): Climate Protection Report 2019. Berlin, last accessed on 26 July 2021.

Linz, Manfred (2004): Neither Scarcity nor Excess: On Sufficiency and Sufficiency Research. Wuppertal (Wuppertal Papers, 145). Available online at epub.wupperinst.org/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/1915/file/WP145.pdf, last accessed on 26 July 2021.

Over, Margarete; Zimmermann, Patrick; Brischke, Lars-Arvid (2021): How should we build to enable sufficient housing? ifeu – Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg GmbH; BTU Cottbus Senftenberg. Mittweida. Available online at www.ifeu.de/fileadmin/uploads/pdf/Over_Zimmermann_Brischke_Suffizient_Bauen-Wohnen210322.pdf, last checked on 14 June 2021.

Schmitt, Corinna; Leuser, Leon; Brischke, Lars-Arvid; et al. (2015): Sufficiency measures and policies in local climate protection strategies and master plans – an overview. Working paper produced as part of the project ‘Strategies and instruments for a technical, systemic and cultural transformation to sustainably limit energy demand in the construction and housing sectors’. Heidelberg Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. Berlin. Available online at energiesuffizienz.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/suffizienz_kommunal-final_1509281.pdf.

Federal Environment Agency (UBA) (ed.) (2021): Land Use for Settlements and Transport. Available online at www.umweltbundesamt.de/daten/flaeche-boden-land-oekosysteme/flaeche/siedlungs-verkehrsflaeche, last accessed on 23 June 2021.