SCN 7500: Using the Science of System Thinking to Identify Market Driven Sustainability Solutions
3 Credits
The sustainability problems facing our society are extreme and wide-reaching - however, the pervasive nature of these problems result in amble business opportunities for the open-minded, knowledgeable, and creative leader. Sustainability-related issues are no longer an altruistic "tack on" to business strategy and development - but rather an integral component of current economic and business success.
This course will tackle the biggest sustainability challenges facing our global society through use of system thinking framework. Systems thinking provides a holistic way of examining the interconnected aspects of an issue, allowing the skills learned in this course to be highly transferable to a host of other challenges beyond sustainability related issues.
The course cover fundamentals of system thinking and then apply those tools to various sustainability problems. Much of the content will apply to climate change because this crisis is leading directly to new business opportunities, such as alternative energy markets, mineral supply shortages and the development of a battery recycling industry, altered global shipping routes due to opening of Arctic sea ice, burgeoning carbon credit markets to offset emissions, shifting consumer preferences, etc. Also, the far-reaching nature of climate change allows us to also touch on other related sustainability topics as they relate to business and the economy, such as water resource conservation and the circular economy, regenerative agriculture, global inequality, and the role of global geopolitics in solving sustainability problems.
Our focus will be solutions oriented. To do this we will learn to use a to draw causal loop diagrams, identify leverage points, and visualize the role of feedback loops and various policy initiatives in solving sustainability problems. Guest speakers from the private sector will provide additional context for application of these tools in the workplace. Supplemental readings will highlight how to translate knowledge into effective leadership in the workplace. We will practice making fact-based arguments through in-class debates about controversial topics related to sustainability solutions (e.g., carbon tax, plastic bans, which countries are responsible for paying for climate damages). Team learning is an essential component of the course; multiple group projects will enable students to work together to apply the tools taught in this course to identify climate solutions.
Prerequisites: None