Exploring pathways to low-impact consumption futures

Sustainable design and circular innovations are often promoted as solutions to our unsustainable consumption. But what if the solution actually lies in removing, rather than inventing something new? This project explores how exnovation – the removal of something existing – can be used to reduce resource-intensive consumption.

Sufficiency is about reducing consumption while ensuring everyone has the opportunity for well-being. It is a central strategy for achieving climate goals. Today, the focus is often on promoting sustainable consumption through the introduction of innovations. But this risks missing the fact that unsustainable structures, policies, practices and products must also be phased out. This project therefore questions whether innovation – the introduction of something new – is the only path to sustainable consumption and instead explores how exnovation – the removal of something existing – can contribute to future consumption in line with climate goals.

In the project, we explore exnovation from a theoretical and practical perspective. Through literature reviews, we lay the foundation for a theoretical framework linking exnovation to sufficiency-oriented consumption. We then explore in practice how exnovation can contribute to sufficiency-oriented consumption futures at three different levels: in households, in organisations, and at the societal level. These investigations are conducted through interviews, focus groups, and field experiments. In this way, we learn how an exnovation mindset can be developed and applied at all three levels.

The insights from the project are summarised in various ways. We develop future scenarios and describe how actors at different levels can use exnovation to find pathways to such futures, which we call exnovation journeys. Through co-creation processes, we develop tools to support an exnovation mindset among actors at different levels. During the project, we disseminate the results in various ways, for example through scientific publications, presentations, seminars, and workshops where we co-create or test tools.

Are you curious about exnovation?

Do you want to stay updated on the project? Would you like to be invited to presentations, seminars, focus groups, workshops, or other activities? Would you like to participate in exnovation experiments? May we interview you? Or would you like to collaborate in some other way? Then you can sign up for our contact list via the turquoise button above to the right. You can also contact the project leader, Sara Renström.