Sustainability strategies are mechanisms that contribute to achieving

sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

and are well-established in the field of

sustainability science Sustainability science first emerged in the 1980s and has become a new academic discipline. Similar to agricultural science or health science, it is an applied science defined by the practical problems it addresses. Sustainability science focuses ...

. Originally, the term centered on a triad introduced by Joseph Huber, encompassing sufficiency, efficiency, and consistency.Huber, J. 2000a. Nachhaltige Entwicklung: Strategien für Eine Ökologische und Soziale Erdpolitik. Sigma. Each of these strategies has since developed its own school of thought, emphasizing different merits and contributions to sustainability. In recent debates, further strategies are discussed, culminating in a recent framework by Eric Hartmann, which describes a total of ten sustainability strategies.Hartmann, E. 2025. "Sustainability Strategies: What's in a Name? A Conceptual Restatement of Fundamental Mechanisms Toward Sustainability". Sustainable Development, article sd.3443. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.3443 Sufficiency focuses on reducing consumption and production levels without threatening human needs. Following the typology by Maria Sandberg, four types of sufficiency can be distinguished, namely absolute reduction of consumption (e.g. less travels), modal shifts (e.g. switching from air travels to trains), sharing (e.g. carpooling) and increased longevity (e.g. repairing a bike instead of buying a new one). Sufficiency is often discussed in the context of the

degrowth Degrowth is an Academic research, academic and social Social movement, movement critical of the concept of economic growth, growth in Real gross domestic product, gross domestic product as a measure of Human development (economics), human and econ ...

paradigm of sustainability.

Efficiency Efficiency is the often measurable ability to avoid making mistakes or wasting materials, energy, efforts, money, and time while performing a task. In a more general sense, it is the ability to do things well, successfully, and without waste. ...

aims to reduce resource use, energy consumption, or pollution per unit of consumption or production within existing production and consumption systems - such as improved

fuel efficiency Fuel efficiency (or fuel economy) is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the ratio of effort to result of a process that converts chemical energy, chemical potential energy contained in a carrier (fuel) into kinetic energy or Mechanical work, w ...

in cars or energy-saving appliances.Weizsäcker, E. U., A. B. Lovins, and L. H. Lovins. 1998. Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use: A Report to the Club of Rome. Routledge. It is often considered to share an elective affinity with the

green growth Green growth is a concept in economic theory and policymaking used to describe paths of economic growth that are environmentally sustainable. The term was coined in 2005 by the South Korean Rae Kwon Chung ( de), a director at UNESCAP. It is based ...

paradigm. Consistency involves shifting to new industrial metabolisms that are more consistent with nature’s metabolism and hence cause less environmental damage (such as renewable energies and circular design). This strategy is implicitly advocated by the

circular economy A circular economy (also referred to as circularity or CE) is a model of resource Production (economics), production and Resource consumption, consumption in any economy that involves sharing, leasing, Reuse, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and ...

approach and rooted in

industrial ecology Industrial ecology (IE) is the study of material and energy flows through industrial systems. The global industrial economy can be modelled as a network of industrial processes that extract resources from the Earth and transform those resource ...

Sustainability strategy framework

In recent years, scholars have expanded the concept to explore the interrelations, potentials, and limitations of these strategies. A comprehensive conceptual framework was introduced by Eric Hartmann, defining sustainability strategies as mechanisms that help guarantee central human capabilities or limit and reduce

environmental impacts Environmental issues are disruptions in the usual function of ecosystems. Further, these issues can be caused by humans (human impact on the environment) or they can be natural. These issues are considered serious when the ecosystem cannot recov ...

, thereby promoting both intergenerational and intragenerational

justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

. Sustainability, in this view, is achieved when all individuals can satisfy fundamental

human needs A need is a deficiency at a point of time and in a given context. Needs are distinguished from wants. In the case of a need, a deficiency causes a clear adverse outcome: a dysfunction or death. In other words, a need is something required for a ...

while environmental impacts remain within safe

thresholds Thresholds is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1959 serving persons with mental illnesses and substance abuse problems in Illinois. Thresholds is the largest community-based mental healthcare provider in Illinois, providing service ...

. The framework identifies a total of ten sustainability strategies, divided into five intergenerational and five intragenerational strategies.

Intergenerational strategies

Intergenerational strategies focus on reducing and limiting environmental impacts. They are based on the established triad of sufficiency, efficiency increase and consistency increases. This triad is complemented by two additional strategies, namely population reduction and regeneration expansion. Population reduction describes reducing

population growth Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The World population, global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to aroun ...

voluntarily through, for instance, better family planning and reproductive healthcare. Under the assumption of a steady share of environmental impacts per person, this leads to a decrease in overall environmental impacts. Regeneration expansion encompasses processes that reduce absolute environmental pressure and restore the environment—activities such as

reforestation Reforestation is the practice of restoring previously existing forests and woodlands that have been destroyed or damaged. The prior forest destruction might have happened through deforestation, clearcutting or wildfires. Three important purpose ...

carbon dioxide removal Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is a process in which carbon dioxide () is removed from the atmosphere by deliberate human activities and durably stored in geological, terrestrial, or ocean reservoirs, or in products.IPCC, 2021:Annex VII: Glossar ...

. Hereby, the aim is not to only reduce negative environmental impacts caused by human behavior, but to create positive impacts on the natural environment.

Intragenerational strategies

Originally, the term sustainability strategies strongly focused on ecological aspects and the intragenerational dimension of sustainability. However, it has been expanded to adequately consider the fundamental human needs of people already living today. A set of five intragenerational strategies can be utilized to ensure everyone's central capabilities and satisfy fundamental human needs, including capability empowerment, equalization, eco-efficiency increase, impact expansion and population reduction. First, capability empowerment targets production, consumption and individual rights in essential areas like nutrition, healthcare, and education so that people can live dignified, healthy lives. Second, equalization attempts to ensure fair access to resources and to reduce extreme

inequality Inequality may refer to: * Inequality (mathematics), a relation between two quantities when they are different. * Economic inequality, difference in economic well-being between population groups ** Income inequality, an unequal distribution of i ...

, so that one group’s overconsumption doesn’t deprive others of the basics. Third, eco-efficiency increase encompasses increased possibilities of production and consumption through efficiency, consistency and regeneration which could specifically help those in need. Furthermore, impact expansion can in principle foster central capabilities and the fulfillment of human needs. Where environmental limits are not threatened, allowing increased production, consumption and

can support human development. This option has strongly been utilized historically, yet is no option today due to threatening environmental crises such as

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

and

biodiversity loss Biodiversity loss happens when plant or animal species disappear completely from Earth (extinction) or when there is a decrease or disappearance of species in a specific area. Biodiversity loss means that there is a reduction in Biodiversity, b ...

.Brand, U., and M. Wissen. 2017. Imperiale Lebensweise: Zur Ausbeutung von Mensch und Natur in Zeiten des Globalen Kapitalismus. Oekom Verlag. Finally, population reduction might also contribute to ensure intragenerational justice. Distributing environmental impacts and produced goods on a smaller population might foster central capabilities. However, family planning and reproduction are significant individual choices, strongly intertwined with central capabilities and must not be forced. Together, these strategies form an integrative framework for fostering sustainability in practical implementation. Further research is necessary to understand potentials and limitations of different strategies in diverse areas of sustainability.

References

{{reflist Strategy, Economics of sustainability, Sustainable development