Homing in on Sufficiency: Testing and Developing Criteria for Measuring Housing Sufficiency

Sufficiency, the concept of enoughness, has been proposed as a strategy to reduce residential greenhouse gas emissions. This thesis assesses existing housing sufficiency criteria and metrics to identify their strengths and limitations and inform the development of improved criteria. Three proposed housing sufficiency criteria were identified in the literature and tested using US housing microdata. Each criterion resulted in a different level of sufficiency with 78.8, 58.3, and 2.8 of homes being deemed sufficient. The proposed criteria lacked explicit links to the Earth’s ecological capacity and therefore, could not ensure long-term sustainability. To address this, a new method for defining housing sufficiency was developed based on a sustainable housing carbon budget. When tested against 36 residential case studies, the average sustainable floor area was 9.4 m2 per person, indicating that current building practices and energy generation methods remain too carbon-intensive to allow for homes that are sufficient and sustainable.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Applied Science (M.App.Sc.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Engineering, Building

Grantor dc:publisher

Carleton University

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Gulamhussein, Ali

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © 2026 the author(s). Theses may be used for non-commercial research, educational, or related academic purposes only. Such uses include personal study, distribution to students, research and scholarship. Theses may only be shared by linking to the Carleton University Institutional Repository and no part may be copied without proper attribution to the author; no part may be used for commercial purposes directly or indirectly via a for-profit platform; no adaptation or derivative works are permitted without consent from the copyright owner.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

10.22215/etd/2026-17089

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:carleton.scholaris.ca:20.500.14718/45246