Sustainability strategies: Sustainability as a question of justice

Although sustainable development is firmly anchored as a shared vision in politics, business, science and civil society, the world is currently facing several sustainability crises. “In order to counter current sustainability crises, all viable sustainability strategies must be implemented and realized quickly and effectively,” says Eric Hartmann.  However, existing scientific research lacks a conceptual basis for existing and possible sustainability strategies, a gap he would like to close.

Is sustainability fair?

Hartmann sees sustainability as a question of justice. “It's about achieving fair institutions for society, and not just for people living today, but also for future generations,” explains the young researcher.

So far, sufficiency, efficiency and consistency have been summarized under the term sustainability strategies. These deal with the question of how ecological damage can be reduced, for example by reducing one's own consumption or avoiding environmental pollution. 

Eric Hartmann goes one step further in his concept and identifies a total of five intragenerational and five intergenerational strategies. Intragenerational strategies are about the basic needs of people in the present, such as food, shelter and warmth, which make a dignified life possible. The intergenerational strategies are about the world in the future that we leave to the next generations. “We must not destroy the world if we want people to be able to meet their basic needs,” says Eric Hartmann. For him, sustainability means “having enough to satisfy basic needs, but not causing too much ecological damage.” Against the backdrop of man-made climate change, this is one of the greatest challenges of our time. In addition to the established triad of efficiency, consistency and sufficiency, further sustainability strategies must therefore be implemented, in particular regeneration, equalization and empowerment of people. 

Hartmann's next publication will deal with an empirical study of sustainability strategies and their implementation, also with a view to climate policy in Germany. “Of course, we need a social framework that allows the strategies to be implemented”.

The next step is therefore to apply the strategies to specific fields such as climate protection policy in an exemplary manner. His hope is that people will be able to use the strategies effectively in the future to achieve sustainability goals and thus create a fair world, including for future generations.

Eric Hartmann has been working as a research assistant in the “Lower Saxony Sustainability Strategy” research project with Prof. Dr. Harald Heinrichs for just over three years. The 28-year-old is doing his doctorate at Leuphana and is developing a sufficiency perspective on climate policy in Germany. He previously studied sociology and philosophy. As he has always enjoyed working with conceptual perspectives, he was also interested in developing a concept for sustainability research. In March 2025, his second publication entitled “Sustainability Strategies: What's in a Name? A Conceptual Restatement of Fundamental Mechanisms Toward Sustainability” was published in the journal Sustainable Development.