Paper short abstract:

The growth acceleration of the Anthropocene epoch has lead to over-consumption and environmental crises. This calls for a paradigm shift from efficiency to sufficiency that goes beyond efficiency, with the objective of reduced total resource consumption at all levels.

Paper long abstract:

With every passing day, with technological improvements, all the systems of the world, at every

stage, are becoming more and more resource-efficient. An increase in efficiency means that for

the same output, one would consume less input. However, data shows that increases in resource

efficiency have not led to decreases in total resource consumption. The Anthropocene epoch, in

which there has been a great acceleration since 1950 in terms of population growth, urbanization,

primary energy use, fertilizer consumption, large dams, water use, transportation, global tourism,

etc., has led us to an environmental crisis beyond proportion. This calls for a paradigm shift from

efficiency to sufficiency that goes beyond efficiency, with the objective of reduced total resource

consumption at all levels. Against this backdrop, in this paper, we discuss the pieces of evidence

of operationalization of sufficiency by considering two sectors: power or electricity and

transportation. Taking resort to the theory of spaceship economy, we demonstrate how

minimization is at work in the two sectors and justify how sufficiency subsumes efficiency.

Key words: Efficiency, Sufficiency, Environmental Crises, Resource consumption