Analysing the EU policy mix for the built environment from a sufficiency perspective

Abstract

Abstract Non-Technical Summary EU building policy faces interlinked challenges: issues like the housing crisis and energy poverty persist, while buildings contribute significantly to global resource consumption and related environmental impacts. Resolving these issues may require more than improvements in efficiency and clean technology. Sufficiency offers a complementary strategy – reducing the resource consumption of buildings to what is really needed while ensuring decent living standards for all. Yet, the role of sufficiency in EU building policies remains underexplored. This study assesses how sufficiency is integrated into EU policies, identifying key gaps and opportunities for strengthening it in the building sector. Technical Summary Buildings are responsible for a large share of the EU’s resource consumption and environmental impacts, while access to living space is highly unequal. Technological innovation alone may not adequately address this social-ecological challenge; however, sufficiency offers a complementary solution. Most research on sufficiency policy for buildings examines national or subnational policies, leaving the EU level underexplored, while studies on policy mixes rarely assess the built environment in an EU context. Our study addresses these gaps by providing, to the best of our knowledge, the first investigation into how sufficiency is integrated into EU policies for the built environment. We use content analysis, applying a conceptual framework for sufficiency with four dimensions: reduced consumption, environmental sustainability, behavioural and lifestyle change, and equitable welfare. The findings indicate that the EU policy mix for buildings incorporates measures in all four sufficiency dimensions, although the social aspects are acknowledged to a lesser extent. Most measures remain technical, but some exceptions align more with existing suggestions for sufficiency policy. Still, we spot significant gaps in the policy mix. This highlights the potential for the EU to adopt sufficiency principles by strengthening existing measures and combining them with more ambitious approaches. Social Media Summary An analysis of EU building policies through the lens of sufficiency: balancing environmental goals and societal needs.