Sufficiency Policies Offer Solutions to Finland’s Structural Overconsumption

1.12.2025

Structural overconsumption, driven by institutional and cultural frameworks that promote unsustainable consumption, is one of Finland’s greatest obstacles to sustainability. The Finnish Parliament’s Committee for the Future’s Overconsumption Steering Group requested a specialist statement on this issue from members of the Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development: Professor Lassi Linnanen (Environmental Economics, LUT University) and Professor Niko Soininen (Environmental Law, University of Eastern Finland). Their conclusion: Finland needs a shift toward a sufficiency economy.

Earth’s ecological boundaries are being exceeded due to significant overuse of natural resources—especially in wealthy nations and social groups. This systemic problem manifests in economic growth dependency, consumer culture, infrastructure, legal frameworks, and inequality.

“The Committee for the Future has chosen overconsumption as one of its themes for examination. We want to find ways to align the consumption of natural resources with the limits of the planet’s carrying capacity. What kind of future does that imply? What changes will it require in current structures? What could the path to a sustainable future look like? These are the questions we want to explore together with experts,” says Krista Mikkonen, Member of Parliament and Chair of the Committee for the Future’s Overconsumption Steering Group.

Examples include meat-heavy diets, leisure air travel, car-centric transport systems, and excessive forest exploitation. Current solutions such as technological innovation and green growth have not been able to decouple economic growth from environmental pressure. While technical solutions are necessary, they are not enough: restraining production and consumption is essential.

“Structural overconsumption is a systemic phenomenon that requires broad societal debate, political courage, and new ways of thinking,” says Lassi Linnanen, Chair of the Expert Panel for Sustainable Development.

The sufficiency economy approach seeks to curb consumption and resource use within Earth’s carrying capacity. It emphasizes distinguishing between needs and wants. Basic needs can and should be met, but unchecked desires often exceed sustainable limits.

Proposed measures may include:

Wealth taxes and consumption quotas
Higher taxes on environmentally harmful products
Restrictions on environmentally harmful advertising
Rethinking work through basic income and shorter working hours

“A successful sustainability transition requires reforming economic and legal structures and strengthening people’s agency and capacity for influence,” notes Niko Soininen, member of the Sustainability Panel.

Finland’s Role and Opportunity

Finland is among Europe’s highest-consuming countries, exceeding Earth’s carrying capacity by roughly fourfold. Structural overconsumption is Finland’s biggest sustainability challenge.

“Growth is not on the horizon, which underscores Finland’s need to transform its economy. At the same time, I see this as an opportunity for Finland to become a pioneer of sufficiency economy,” Linnanen concludes.