Purpose <p>Sufficiency, or the concept of “getting by with less”, is increasingly recognized as an essential strategy for environmental sustainability. Yet, life cycle assessment (LCA), is currently not capable of assessing sufficiency measures, potentially limiting their societal implementation. Therefore, this paper aims to advance the capability of LCA to assess sufficiency measures and to explore their effects in a real-world case study in the Swedish hospitality sector, in terms of climate change impact and guest satisfaction.</p> Method <p>Sufficiency-LCA is designed to assess both the environmental impacts of sufficiency measures and their potential changes in functional output, in other words, how much functionality is “given up” as results of people “getting by with less”. Such an assessment is crucial for actors seeking to balance potential environmental gains and functional tradeoffs, in this case, measured as effects on guest satisfaction. The case study focuses on mountain stations with restaurant and accommodation services in the Swedish backcountry. Assessed sufficiency measures include reducing the use of fresh ingredients in restaurants to reduce the need for helicopter transportation, and reducing the use of climate-intensive ingredients such as meat and dairy. Data on guest satisfaction were collected through surveys.</p> Results and discussion <p>Results show that reducing the use of fresh ingredients in the restaurants, to reduce the need for helicopter transport, offers limited climate benefits and slight negative effects on guest satisfaction. In contrast, reducing meat and dairy has greater potential for climate change mitigation at a comparable negative effect on guest satisfaction. In addition, it was observed that actual guest satisfaction after implementing sufficiency measures is consistently higher than guests presumed beforehand, suggesting sufficiency can be more acceptable in practice than expected. In future research, Sufficiency-LCA could be further developed in more controlled experimental settings and broadened to include further indicator types beyond guest satisfaction.</p> Conclusions <p>The findings validate Sufficiency-LCA as a promising tool that can provide decision-making support for actors who consider implementing sufficiency measures in efforts to reduce environmental impact. By revealing both the potential environmental gains and the impacts on functional output, Sufficiency-LCA can support a broader adoption of sufficiency measures in pursuit of reaching sustainability goals. Given the increasing importance of sufficiency and LCA in the sustainability transition, Sufficiency-LCA addresses a crucial gap in sustainability science and practice.</p>