Overview

Planning and Designing Housing within Planetary Boundaries is a 60-minute virtual course taking place on June 2, 2025, from 12:00 PM to 01:00 PM (ET). Hosted under the Housing and Community Development (HCD) category, this session will explore how sufficiency principles can address the housing needs of a growing population within the planet’s ecological limits.

Why You Should Participate

• Learn how consumption and scale of construction influence emissions.

• Understand how sufficiency can reduce demand for materials, land, and energy.

• Explore real-world strategies for applying sufficiency principles in housing.

• Gain tools to advocate for sufficiency-first housing policy.

• Hear from two leading voices in sustainability and architecture.

Key Highlights

• Event Date: June 2, 2025

• Time: 12:00 PM – 01:00 PM (ET)

• Format: Virtual

• Duration: 60 minutes

• Credits: 1 LU | HSW

• Category: Housing & Community Development

• Focus: Sufficiency, housing demand, decarbonization

Speakers

Lisa Richmond, Hon. AIA
Senior Fellow, Architecture 2030
Founder, Climate Strategy Works

• Leads Architecture 2030’s sufficiency research hub

• Founding member, World Sufficiency Lab

• Co-author, “Sufficiency and the Built Environment” report

Lloyd Alter
Adjunct Professor of Sustainable Design, Toronto Metropolitan University

• Former prefab housing builder and tiny-house pioneer

• Author of Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle

• Advocate of Radical Sufficiency

• Former Design Editor, TreeHugger

Course Description

Our industry has made real progress reducing the carbon emissions from the buildings we operate and the materials we use. But emissions are determined not only by how well we build — but also by how much we build. Consumption matters.
This course explores how we can meet the housing needs of a growing population on an increasingly resource-constrained planet. Sufficiency — avoiding the demand for materials, land, and resources while delivering well-being for all — is a critical missing tool in our decarbonization toolkit.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the concept of sufficiency as a demand-side decarbonization strategy

• Become familiar with international research and advocacy on sufficiency

• Learn design strategies that apply sufficiency principles to meet housing demand

• Understand how architects can advocate for sufficiency-first housing policy

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