1. Sustainability Studies:
The Greatest Challenge
Beyond Gloom and Doom 101
Arctic sea ice drops to its
lowest level since
modern recording began
Scientists call event “tipping point" in
global warming.
-National Sea Ice and Data Center (09/16/12)
PressTV 2010
Our Greatest Challenge
Is Also Our Greatest Opportunity!!!

2. What is Sustainability?
Meeting the needs of
the present without
compromising the
ability of future
generations to meet
their own needs
-United Nations World Commission on
Development and Environment (1987)

3. Triple Bottom Line Systems
Sustainability brings three systems into
harmony:

4. The Academic Mission
Teaching and
Learning
Research and
Creative Activity
Service and
Civic Engagement

5. Our Challenge and Opportunity
Teaching and
Learning
Research and
Creative Activity
Service and
Civic Engagement
Sustainability Academic Mission

6. We need a Framework
• Complexity
• Uncertainty

7. Framework for Strategic Sustainable
Development (FSSD)
Initially developed by The Natural Step (NGO) and an
international group of natural and social scientists as a result
of the desire to help identify a set of scientifically based
principles that could guide human action toward a more
sustainable path regardless of the starting point.
Provides a comprehensive definition of an environmentally
sustainable society that is easily understood and grounded in
natural science, social science, and systems theory.
Offers a flexible framework for individuals, families, businesses,
and communities to create and implement their own plans
which will enable them to become more sustainable one step
at a time.

8. Scientific Foundations
Basic Laws of Physics
1st and 2nd Laws of
Thermodynamics
Law of Conservation of Matter

9. Scientific Foundations
Evolution
Evolutionary Biology
4.5 billion years – Swirling stew
3.5 billion years – First plant cell
1.5 billion years – First green plants
0.7- 1 billion – First animal cells
2 million years – Human ancestors

10. Scientific Foundations
Planetary Cycles
Water
Carbon (CO2)
Nitrogen
National Center for Atmospheric
Research

11. What all scientists agree upon
Slow geological cycles
(volcano eruptions and
weathering)
Closed system with
respect to matter
1) Nothing disappears
2) Everything disperses
Slow geological cycles
(sedimentation and
mineralization)
Open system with
respect to energy
« Photosynthesis
pays the bill »
Sustainability is
about the ability of
our own human
society to continue
indefinitely within
these natural
cycles

12. How we influence the system
Relatively large flows
of materials from the
Earth’s crust
Introduce persistent
compounds foreign to
nature
Physically inhibit
nature’s ability to
run cycles
Barriers to
people
meeting their
basic needs
worldwide

13. 4 System Conditions of a
Sustainable Society
In a sustainable society, nature is not subject
to systematically increasing...
...concentrations of substances
extracted from the Earth’s crust,
...concentrations of substances
produced by society,
...degradation by physical means,
and, in that society...
...people are not subject to conditions
that systematically undermine their
capacity to meet their needs.

14. Operating Manual for the Planet
In a sustainable society, we strive to...
Reduce and eventually eliminate our contributions
to the systematic accumulation of materials taken
from the earth’s crust.
Reduce and eventually eliminate our contribution to
the systematic accumulation of substances produced
by society.
Reduce and eventually eliminate our contributions
to the ongoing physical degradation of nature.
Reduce and eventually eliminate our contributions
to conditions that systematically undermine people’s
abilities to meet their own needs.

15. Strategies for Putting Theory into
Practice
Systems Thinking
Learning Organization

16. Backcasting
1. Begin with the end in mind
2. Move backwards from the vision to the present
3. Move step by step towards the vision
Present
Future
Visioning

18. Hot Lips Pizza
Portland company – 6 stores
Started with low hanging fruit: cut
electric bill by 50%
Changed buying model: local,
seasonal, partnerships with local
farmers and producers
Results: Thriving company, good
brand
Benefits: financial, employees,
customers
Marketing: Articles in Wall Street
Journal, Fortune Magazine

19. FSSD Potential for the Academy
• Peer-reviewed platform for mission activities
• Collaboration across boundaries/Silo buster
– teaching/research/service
– disciplines
– grants/development
– academic/non-academic
– campus/community
– education/business/gov’t/not-for-profit/civil
• Gets the system in the room

20. FSSD offers a scientific systems
based platform
Teaching and
Learning
Research and
Creative Activity
Service and
Civic Engagement
Sustainability Academic Mission

23. FSSD offers a scientific systems
based platform
Teaching and
Learning
Research and
Creative Activity
Service and
Civic Engagement
Sustainability Academic Mission

24. Center for a Sustainable Future
sustainthefuture.iusb.edu
facebook.com/sustainthefuture
youtube.com/SustainTheFuture

25. Center for a Sustainable Future
574.520.4429 csfuture@iusb.edu
sustainthefuture.iusb.edu