For the implementation of sustainability in the existing economic system, three main strategies were proposed, which should be pursued equally in order to ensure the long-term coexistence of humans and non-human nature.

Efficiency describes the ratio between the benefit achieved and the effort required to achieve a defined result. A more efficient economy aims to use fewer materials in the production process in order to generate the same quantity of end products. On the one hand, this should reduce the burden on natural resources and, on the other, generate greater economic prosperity. Increases in efficiency hold appeal in that they promise a more sustainable economy without the need to sacrifice prosperity. However, this promise in itself is illusory, as the necessary efficiency gains cannot easily be achieved with the aim of maintaining an ecologically sustainable economy without a loss of prosperity. In addition, there is a risk that so-called rebound effects will ensure that the positive results of an increase in efficiency are undermined, for example by stimulating higher consumption or additional, unsustainable investments through more favourable production costs.

The strategy of consistency, on the other hand, is about achieving greater compatibility between nature and technology by adapting economic processes to ecological processes. By imitating natural cycles in the economy, resources should be kept in the production cycle as long as possible and no waste should be produced. Similar to efficiency improvements, the pursuit of a consistency strategy is also compatible with existing economic practices and does not require the sacrifice of material prosperity that has already been achieved. Instead, ecological problems are to be circumvented by changing the way we do business.

Unlike the other two strategies, the sufficiency strategy does not start at the production level, but at the consumer level. The main aim is to counter widespread and unconsidered overconsumption with a more reflective and reduced lifestyle. Alternative consumption patterns should be orientated more towards the things that are essential for a good life and consumption decisions should be made with a focus on the environmental footprint of the chosen products. It is not always a question of practising renunciation; instead, in many cases it is also possible to switch to more sustainable alternatives that are also beneficial for consumers.

Equivalent to the three strategies mentioned above, a number of R-principles are often mentioned in the popular discourse on sustainability. Here, too, the primary aim is to establish alternative economic and consumption methods, for example by rethinking conventional economic practices in terms of their efficiency (rethink), choosing more environmentally friendly, ecologically degradable (rot) materials and keeping them in circulation for longer (recycle, reuse, repair) or selecting products from consumers with more forethought (reduce, refuse). Both the three guiding strategies and the R-principles approach focus primarily on the ecological and economic dimensions of sustainability, but not on the social dimension.