How much is enough? Towards evaluating sufficiency strategies in residential buildings using Life Cycle Assessment

Paper in proceeding, 2026

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to buildings are growing. While efficiency and renewable resources can only partly mitigate the impacts, sufficiency has been highlighted as a strategy with great potential. However, evaluating sufficiency strategies with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has several challenges, e.g. defining a suitable functional unit. There are few examples of LCA studies integrating sufficiency, and none related to the building sector. The present study investigates how LCA can be applied to assess sufficiency for residential buildings by using an additional comparison functional unit. Moreover, the influence of functional units is studied. The main finding is that a comparison showing the reduced demand for the evaluated product is required to assess the effect of sufficiency measures, in addition to the impact per functional unit. The solution evaluated is to provide an additional key indicator (comparison functional unit), measuring the saved demand. However, this is dependent on the reference used for comparison, requiring further studies to determine suitable values. Furthermore, including area per user or number of users as a reference flow would better reflect building function and size, highlighting crucial sufficiency strategies. In conclusion, this study confirms challenges in evaluating the sufficiency of buildings with LCA, although the evaluated approach provides a step forward to implementing Sufficiency LCA for buildings, effectively reducing the environmental impacts.