Adopting A Sufficiency Approach In Reinventing Material Utilisation Through A Project Management (Pm) Perspective: A Critical Discourse

Sustainability has been a long-time employed but distorted concept, following the unsuitable approaches used by large corporations claiming to achieve sustainability. Regardless, several reports show that the net-zero emission goal of 2050 will likely not be achieved in this century. This paper posits that circumnavigating this challenge demands the adoption of sufficiency-based objectives using a project management perspective with a laser focus on the choice of materials. This understanding stems from the belief that all production processes are fundamentally influenced by the choice of materials whether it be energy, construction, food processing etc.However, the paper does not neglect the laws of supply and demand, the economic turbulence of market forces, and the need for profit maximisation. Hence the recommendation for inducing a reductionist lifestyle through a sufficiency-based marketing mix aimed at altering consumption behaviours. The intent is to influence a consumer sufficiency-type demand and match it with relevant product types, consequently leading to significant waste negation. Therefore, this paper significantly examines the possible alterations and key determinants in the decision of what choice of materials to use in production, namely, reduce, reuse, and recycle. The results show that a full-on adoption of the circular economy model is currently impossible, but some parts of the model can be implemented and the existing sustainability activities by corporations further expanded. Based on earlier works, this paper recommends a sufficiency-based approach for achieving sufficiency at the micro-, meso- and macro-levels of sustainability.