Isaure LA COTE
Author
If I told you that the goal of my company was not to grow, you would probably be disoriented, especially if you are familiar with (neoclassical) economic theory. Yet some companies deliberately make this choice, called by some scholars "Business for sufficiency" or "Successful Non-growing Companies". How can that exist and persist?
Instead of promoting purported "green products" to create "ecological consumers" and continue increasing production, profits and environmental footprint, an ecological transition consistent with planetary boundaries should go through the application of sufficiency to the private sector. Building on Max Neef's human needs framework, businesses should address the following questions to be sufficient:
- Is the product/service proposed fulfilling a human need (i.e. subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation, recreation, creation, identity, freedom, transcendence)?
- Is the good/service proposed a positive satisfier, i.e. that does not impede other needs to be satisfied (including of the rest of humanity, of the Earth system and of future generations), that does not create a false sense of satisfaction and that does not over-satisfy needs?
- Can this need be (realistically) satisfied without an economic good or commercial exchange
Many companies have already made the choice to adopt sufficiency, applying the following principles: Rethink (consume better products), reduce (consume fewer products), refuse (renounce consuming some goods/services) with the following objectives: Less clutter (fewer items and resources consumed), less speed (slower and more reliable), less distance (regional and disentangled) and less market (going beyond commerce). Sufficiency-oriented companies, for instance, create goods or services with a lower ecological footprint and designed for longevity, provide support for repair or no-ownership schemes (rental, leasing, sharing), reducing the environmental impact of consumption. Some companies go further and decide to moderate sales by discouraging consumption among their customers. For financial viability, a certain level of sales remains necessary, but does not need to grow endlessly and can be achieved through the high value of the goods or services sold. To overcome competitive pressure, local embeddedness, the positioning in niche markets, the focus on reparability of products, and the limit of managers' wage can ensure sustainable revenues for businesses.
Yet for sufficiency-oriented businesses to generalize and be accessible to everyone, there should be policies supporting these companies against unfair competition from the current powerful businesses, as sufficiency-oriented business owners are already calling for. Governments should for instance propose special funds to help sufficiency businesses secure financing while removing subsidies to environmentally destructive enterprises as well as holding companies and shareholders accountable for their material footprint, waste generation and pollution.
Sufficiency-oriented companies are beneficial on many accounts: On top of meeting human needs without exceeding planetary boundaries, they usually have social benefits, through better working conditions for employees. It is also politically empowering since it is more favorable to cooperative governance and financing systems and it emancipates local producers from their dependency on unfair globalized supply chains. This eventually contributes to reshaping the economic system and the organizing principle of our societies.