Abstract
In housing policy, social and environmental targets often appear to be in conflict. This article examines to which degree the rising sustainability strategy ‘sufficiency’ has the potential to overcome this alleged trade-off between social and environmental goals in Germany. The positions of relevant stakeholders from social, environmental, and housing interest groups in Germany on housing policy are analysed by use of Q-methodology. Four distinct positions towards sufficiency-oriented housing policy are identified. The results show under which conditions sufficiency is a promising strategy to reconcile declared social and environmental targets in German housing policy. If pursued by a coalition of housing organizations and environmental interest groups, sufficiency has the potential of becoming a major paradigm in housing policy in Germany and beyond.
Highlights
The alleged trade‐off between social and environmental goals in housingEnvironmental protection and social well-being seem to be at odds in housing policy
More living space, better equipment und higher room temperatures are associated with better living standards (Sovacool 2015), the detached family house has for many decades been the desired living form and currently, and even in countries like Germany with a stagnating population, new construction is demanded to ensure access to and affordability of housing
The conflicts arising from these measures suggest a trade-off between the environmental objectives of climate protection, resource protection and reduction of land use, and the social goals of adequate and affordable housing for everybody
Summary
The alleged trade‐off between social and environmental goals in housing. Environmental protection and social well-being seem to be at odds in housing policy. The associated building and construction policies have negative impacts on three environmental parameters: firstly, land use through new buildings, including the energy-consumption and emissions of the occupants’ transport; secondly, material and energy consumption of construction activity itself; and thirdly, greenhouse gas emissions from the energy-use for the operation of existing buildings. Many environmental policies in the housing sector were criticized as counteracting social. The conflicts arising from these measures suggest a trade-off between the environmental objectives of climate protection, resource protection and reduction of land use, and the social goals of adequate and affordable housing for everybody
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