Efficiency Without Sufficiency Is Lost – GWC Mag

The website formerly known as Twitter is gaga over the biggest and most intricate solar roof installation in Texas (see the video here). A slate roof with 30,000 copper nails was removed before installation of the Tesla solar roof and seven big Powerwalls. The house may be a model for the use of renewables, and it may even be designed for efficiency, but there is another aspect that has to be considered: sufficiency. How much does anyone really need?

As this drawing from the French organization Association Négawatt illustrates, if we are going to reduce energy consumption, we have to increase efficiency and practice sufficiency by prioritizing essential needs. And as the Texas house demonstrates, having efficiency and renewables is pretty meaningless if you don’t also have sufficiency.

Less is more

In my recent post, Living the 100-amp Lifestyle, I quoted the Australian philosopher Samuel Alexander as saying, “Efficiency without sufficiency is lost.” For years, we have been talking about building our homes with greater energy efficiency; in the meantime, on average, they have doubled in size, eating up all those energy savings.

Alexander also writes:

“In order to take advantage of efficiency gains—that is, in order for efficiency gains to actually reduce resource and energy consumption to sustainable levels—what is needed is an economics of sufficiency. This would be a way of life based on modest material and energy needs but nevertheless rich in other dimensions—a life of frugal abundance. It is about creating an economy based on sufficiency, knowing how much is enough to live well, and discovering that enough is plenty.”

The problem in North America is that the housing industry doesn’t subscribe to the idea “enough is plenty.” As the co-authors of the Pretty Good House book put it:

“Jokes about…