Visualising sustainability

How to convey the essence of sustainability in a few sketched lines?    I’m wading through the net and my bookshelves to find examples of the genre.    I’m looking for schematics of the notion of sustainability itself rather than the underlying science – greenhouse, carbon, meso climate process, ground water,  etc for which there are a zillion diagrams.

The list is not meant to be exhaustive, but if I’ve missed your favourite diagram, leave a link and I’ll add it to the list.   Many of these images are duplicated all over the web, I’ve tried to find original sources (try tineye, is really cool), but again, let me know if I’ve missed something.  

In no particular order, here’s 100 125 137 158 179  188 of what I’ve found. 

1. Strong Sustainability

“This model recognises that the economy is a subset of society (i.e. it only exists in the context of a society), and that many important aspects of society do not involve economic activity. Similarly, human society and the economic activity with it are totally constrained by the natural systems of our planet” (NZ PCE quoted by Pam Willams (PhD)

 

2.   OK, so there was a particular order, the strong sustainability circles had to go before the weaker (but much more common) Venn diagram, 3 circles (or triangles)

This model is very very common (google search sustainability Venn). 

“There is some common ground where each of the circles converge, but the main priority in this model is the health of the economy. Economists sometimes refer to this as the weak sustainability model ….. it assumes that the degradation of one group of assets, (environmental, social or economic) can be compensated for by improvement in another and that externalities can be externalised (PRISM and Knight, 2000, cited in PCE, 2002). This weak sustainability model fails to acknowledge the ecological constraints that humans, other species, markets, policies and developments must operate within” (NZ PCE quoted by Pam Willams (PhD)

 
Venn diagrams coming together and showing changing dominance of sectors in a static animation.

3. Mickey Mouse (OzPolitic)

 

 

4. Venn circle with people,   The circle of people give a context (Gerber)

5. Venn circles with each circle labelled (US National Botanic Gardens)

 

 

6. Four Venn circles (Halton Hills)

 

 

7 Venn 3 with overlaps named (see also WKU)

 

 

8. Venn with examples on each sector (Verify). (see also Environmental Planning, Omaha, 

9. Venn 3 with callouts  Swiss Transport Research Project

 

10. 3 aspects  held together by shared values (Active Citizenship Toolkit)

 

 

11. 3 aspects as a stool (David Lock) “three legged stool”

12. More complex 3 legged stool (Italian Architecture)

13. Stool with a broken leg  (perhaps intentional?) from Willoughby City Council 

 

 

 

14. Venn 3 within a context (Curtin Centre for Developmental Health)

 

 

 

15. 3 aspects making whole “globe” (ProLogis)

 

16. Four Pillar (Jon Hawkes incorporates four interlinked dimensions: environmental responsibility, economic health, social equity, and cultural vitality >>)

 

17. Ken Stoke’s mindmap – Cross between 3 circles and concentric circles (animated)

18. Four well beings.   The different forms of well-being as interconnected. Overall well-being, which it places at the centre, is enhanced when all four areas are given equal weight, are interdependent, and are able to move efficiently around the centre (NZ Cutural Well-Being). 

 

 

 

19.  Four factors integrated with level of engagement (Pegasus)

 

20. 3 circles in system (IR3S)

 

 

 

 

21. Business as a system (Interface)  Prototypical company of 21st Century (cf typical model of 20th), and the damaging links that need to be eliminated.

 

22. 6 factor compass (ThyssenKrupp Steel)

In this concept, effectiveness and efficiency are central to all decisions and actions. Effectiveness means offering our customers the products and services they need in the required quality and at competitive prices. To remain successful in the market long term, we must achieve this through excellent productivity with an optimal balance of expense and income. Efficiency is represented symbolically as the opening angle of the equal-sided compass. The opening angle and the length of the legs determine the area circumscribed by the compass. The larger this area, the greater the latitude for a sustainable corporate policy. The degree of efficiency and effectiveness is the dominant factor.

 

 

23. Pathway (Eatwelldogood)

 

24. Anderson’s (Interface) pathway:  Seven fronts of Mount Sustainability

25. Societies Diagram from Daniel Montano

 

26. 3 aspects with 3 dimensions and at different scales (Green Innovations)

 

 

27. Scope  (from UN via open-sustainability)

 

 

 

27. Organisational constructions (Auckland)

 There are many aspects to be considered if Auckland is to become a truly sustainable city. The Local Government Act 2002 makes reference to the ‘four well-beings’: social, economic, environmental, and cultural, but we need to break these down to a larger number of distinct themes in order to define tangible and achievable goals and targets.

 

 

28. Organisational construction (Sydney Olympic Park)

 

29. 7 spoke wheel (Carlson via Rosengren)

 

30. Sustainable Communities Wheel (Egan review, via Active Citizenship Toolkit). 

 

31. People centred sustainability concepts: Sustainable Livelihoods framework .   (see use and explanation on Chronic Poverty and another example on Practical Action)

 

 

32. Medicine wheel (this from Cardinal and Adin via Creative City Network Canada, lots of others- used by PennState Solar decathlon team)

 

33. Wheel  from 350 ”every citizen should be a sustainability steward”  (source not cited)

 

34. Stockport’s Sustainability Wheel

During the sustainability appraisal process each individual proposed policy will be assessed against each of the twenty sustainability objectives.  Commentaries are the most important outcome of the appraisal process. The purpose of the Sustainability Appraisal is to assist the Council in its selection of a preferred option by highlighting the sustainability implications of all development plan options

 

 

35. Building sustainability via a wheel with a pie graph  (Packard)

36. Samsung’s wheel is somehow separated inside (3 aspects) and outside (Samsung)

 

 

37. Responsibilities of different parts of a sector (Wrap – construction)  - why isn’t “decent housing” a role for the private sector?

 

 

38. Web of workstreams (Otago Polytechnic)

 

39. US Parks Service Guiding Principle of Sustainable Design (Leslie Starr Hart 1994)

 

40. Seed logo (Geometry of the SeedLogos)

41.  Seed logo integrated with balancing bodywork (Structural integration)  (Geometry of the SeedLogos)

42. Primary cross (Geometry of the SeedLogos)

Sky / Spiritual                   Earth / Material

Mind / Yang / Masculine           Heart / Yin / Feminine

 

42.  which gives… (Geometry of the SeedLogos)

43. Star Tetrahedron (Geometry of the SeedLogos)

 

44.  12 Sector Seed Logo (Lipman) 

45. Integrated systems Dan Black 

46. Scale – sustainability is a long term deal (Martens)

“One of the options the policy-maker has—and this is not so far from the current situation—is to go for short-term goals and simple or cheap means of achieving them. In contrast to such an approach, a more pro-active, innovative standpoint can be adopted that pursues longer-term goals, taking into account developments on different levels of scale and in different sectors. Unquestionably, sustainable development demands the latter approach.

To facilitate decision making, sustainability scientists must assist in the task of making concrete both problems and solutions on all relevant temporal and spatial scales. This means that sustainability at the systemic level must be assessed, bringing to bear the following procedural elements: analysis of deeper-lying structures of the system,projection into the future, and assessment of sustainable and unsustainable trends.Evaluation of the effects of sustainable policy and the design of possible solutions through sustainable strategies also belong here.

 

 

 

47. Business operations from Environ

48. Aesthetically applied to seafood  (found here, by Ray Troll and Terry Pyles for NOAA Fisheries)

49. Systems and timescales (Eucognition)

“show the different time-scales that relate to the goal-oriented and autonomous agency of a system, and the life cycle of its adaptation to the environment”… “Sustainability is guaranteed by an evolutionary process that underlies the actual behaviour of natural systems, and which is analysed at a different time-scale. It is for this reason that the sustainability of human technological and social systems is not guaranteed by a close coupling with the environment. The analysis of life cycle becomes therefore an essential component to determine the adaptive value of human activity.”

 

 

 

50. UK government: Securing the future – five key  themes

 

 

51. Representation of issues with sustainable lens, NZ gender imbalances

 

 

 

52. IDEO’s lifecycle 

 

53. Paper cycle (from Boise “culture of sustainability)

 

54. Product labelling (here because it represents a flow rather than checkboxes) (Nathan Shedroff)

 

55. Product pathway comparison (unsustainable, unsistainable with recycling, sustainable)  from Tech

 

56. Social-eological perspective for products, especially role of persuasion (Aaron “The value of sustainable development“)

 

 

 

 

57. UK energy flow  (pdf) (many other Sankey diagrams)

 

58. Monash fuel cycle

 

59. Global Effects (Beechenhill Farm)

 

60. FAO fisheries kite

 

 

61. Integration of sustainability into business (Ecosteps)

62. Business opportunity (Treehugger)

 

 

63. Decision filter (Pumicestone Institute)

 

64. Enterprise process though sustainability lens from SustainCommWorld

 

 

65.  GreenCanary’s process. 

 

66. Government process (NZ) “walking the talk“

 

 

67. Management helix  for sustainable organisation (Natural Edge)

 

 

68. Factors influencing sustainability  (Hopkins)

69. Sustainability on a “prosperity continuum” (Muskegon County)

70. City rankings (Sustainlane)

 

71. Sustainable design as organism Guiding Principle of Sustainable Design (Leslie Starr Hart 1994)

 

 
72. Limits to growth graphs

73. Ecological footprint

74. Footprint illustration (NZ Ministry for the Environment)

75. Integrity at core (University New Hampshire).

76. Personality enneagram within spheres (Blake)

77. Human-ecologic interchange (Washington State University)

78. Action at different levels (Ecosteps)

79. Sun (wheel really) Carillion

80. House at centre (Icology: Empowering individuals to end poverty)

This is our vision of the world: Universal access to quality, affordable and ecologically sound housing solutions.

81. Life cycle (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

82. Simply sustainable business model (NZ Ministry for the Environment)

83. Simplified flows (from Christain Science Monitor, John Kehe)

84. Human values journey (Robinson and Goleby)

85. Balance between society and environment (Taylor after Miller)

86. Organisational consciousness (Hoolenbach, University of Western Cape).

87. Marshall and Toffel apply Maslow to human and natural environment (Goffman: Defining Sustainability, defining the future)

88. Sustainability science (Kyoto)

89. Invisible values (Horiba investor relations)

90. Integrated ecological-economic worlview

O’Connor’s image of non-ecological economic worldview

91. O’Connor‘s image of Daly (Beyond Growth)

92. O’Connor’s Integral Economic worldview

93 Resource funnel (The Natural Step)

94. More complex funnel

95 Natural Step System Conditions

96. Natural Step System Conditions

97. Natural Step System Conditions (again)

98. Criteria flower (Steve Henry and Mark Jackson’s arrangement of Edwin Dzaskefki’s design criteria)

99. Capital and carrying capacity (from Colorado College, or here in Italian, neither sourced)

100. (no significance in number!)  Computing Impact (Forum for the Future’s Connected: ICT and sustainable development)

101. Country positioning (rom Colorado College, not sourced)

102. Development sprials (UNESCO)

103. Bottled water (Green Earth Beverage)

104. Sustainable infrastructure (Hokkaido University)

105. Widening engineering framework (University Cambridge Centre for Sustainable Development) (Note the cost/time/quality at the centre – “pick two you can’t have all three”)

106.  Complexity of Sustainability in China

(Financial) impact flow chart, Natsuko Kikutake NoBoundaries via Zones of Emergency

107. Poverty linkages interactive from Density Design

Who are the poor? Poverty is neither a number nor an index. It cannot be reduced to a line that divides those who are above and those who are below, establishing a unique space for social exclusion. Poverty is a multidimensional and complex phenomenon.

108. Earth systems (Global Envrionmental Centre, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point )

109. Force field analysis model (Stuart Hill, after Lewin)

110. Venn Diagram as a web (Gutierrez, Sustainable Development Paradox)

111. Pattern Map (Conservation Economist)

112. 4 agendas for design (Design Issues Databank)

115. New paradigm (extension of time/cost/quality) Augenbroe and Pearce

116. Sustainable construction in a methodological framework, consisting of three main axes: System (boundary), Process (actor) and Aspect (sustainability). Augenbroe and Pearce

117. Systems approach (Bossel) (Interacting nested systems)

118. Factors affecting housing sustainability (Daniell et al ANU)

119. Anishinaabe Perception of Social-ecological Environments (Davidson-Hunt and Berkes)

121. Consequence analysis (AirQUIS)

122. Dimensions (Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency)

Evolution in environmental decision-making have defined circumstances in which more time (CIA) more space (RIA) or more systemic depth (SEA) is required. With each increase, the task (shown by the box) gets bigger and more cumbersome. Sustainable development requires ongoing, integrated and systemically complex analyses, and the task is both large and complex

123. Maori Tertiary Framework (NZ Minstry of Education)

124. Sustainability/Vulnerability (google caches to here, http://www.sustainablefoodlab.org but traced beyond that).

125. Holistic and fragmented worldviews (from Morgan, 2004b after Roberts, 2001, src: David Rei Miller, Western and Mäori Values for Sustainable Development)

126. Mauri model (Morgan, 2004a src: David Rei Miller, Western and Mäori Values for Sustainable Development)

There is thus a need for a decision-making tool that can be used at the Western-Māori interface, which is where most local government projects are developed. The mauri model developed by Kepa Morgan of Mahi Maioro Professionals is a set of assessment criteria similar to the Hellström model. It uses terms from Western science and mātauranga Māori that may be considered analogous. Corresponding to the four aspects of sustainability (environment, culture, society and economy) are four levels or spheres: the environment, hapu, community and whānau

127. Permaculture design principles (Tippett, Holocene)

128. Permaculture design principles (widely used…here, also here)

 

129. Barry Law’s waka prow 

 

130. Sustainability Practitioner (Leith Sharp – ex Harvard?  via  World is Green)

 

 

131. Deisgn process Wever and vanKuijk

Four design strategies
We provide a typology of four user-centered design strategies for inducing sustainable behavior.

• Functionality matching: adapt a product better to the actual use by consumers and thereby try to minimize negative side effects;
• Eco-feedback: the user is presented with specific information on the impact of his or her current behavior, and it is left to the user to relate this information to his or her own behaviour, and adapt this behaviour, or not;
• Scripting: creating obstacles for unsustainable use, or making sustainable behaviour so easy, it is performed almost without thinking about it;
• Forced functionality: making products adapt automatically to changing circumstances, or to design-in strong obstacles to prevent unsustainable behaviour.

The four strategies are supported with examples from packaging, automotive and consumer electronics.

 

 

132.  sustainability governance and reporting from Maggie Lawton. 

 

133. similar space from Workspace (pdf of seven key principles)

 

134. Sustainability on different dimensions (Ecosteps)

135. Sustainability Tree (Ecosteps)

 

 

136. Sustainability related to brand value (Oliveira and Sullivan reported on Environmental Leader)

137. Mindmap from Natarajan Ishwaran and Rob Bernard

Here’s more diagrams to explain sustainability (earlier post, 1-137).

138. 5 mindsets

• Earthly – focusing on the interplay between environmental and developmental agendas in the short- and long-term both globally and locally;
• Analytic – based on ’systems thinking’ and encompassing assessment, planning and management;
• Careful – based on respect for complexity and uncertainty;
• Collaborative – focusing on the interplay of interests, values, cultures and capacities of various actors;
• Action – guiding strategy formation to manage change, continuity and learning for sustainability.

139. 3 aspects mixed with a production cycle (Huhtamaki)

140. Governance and sustainability (Aras and Crowther)

141. Education for sustainable development without the participatory element as “big brother sustainability” Wals and Jickling

142. Assessment tool for cities (Ecostep)

143. Sustainability leadership principles (Mary Ferdig, Sustainability Leadership Institute via Nebraska Sustainability Leadership Workshop)

144. Tragedy of the Commons depicted in system terms (Senge via Warwick).

145. Map of Future Forces Affecting Sustainability (Global Environmental Management Initiative)

An Imperative for Looking Long: The 21st century will test our ability to grasp the future impacts of present choices, but even as we struggle to incorporate future knowledge into our day-to-day decisions, we’re tuning up our bodies and minds and even our cultural frameworks for a much longer view.

146.

Global sustainability related to international business

147. Sustainable farming (DEFRA)

148. City comparison (McKinsey company, in a study on the transition to sustainability for the greater London area (GLA)

149. Scenarios (Gallopin et al via Africa Outlook UNEP)

150. Backcasting (Arising) (see also TNS framework, backcasting process)

151. Pathways to sustainable industrial societies Osamu Saito , Encyclopedia of the Earth (see also principles from Morioka)

152. Pressure state response framework (OEDC via EoE).

153. Framework for environmental and economic accounting (Peter Bartelmus)

154. Resource flows across society set in the context of entropy (Everard)

155. Resource and energy flows within nature’s sustainable cycles and within a theoretical sustainable society (Everard TNS?)

156. Social-ecological system that places the built environment (an artefact) in an overlapping zone between culture and nature, with causation occurring in both directions (Fischer-Kowalski and Weisz in Moffat and Kohler )

157. Spatial scales, aggregation and specific effects (Moffat and Kohler)

158. Cultural, natural and material realms over spatial and temporal scales (Moffat and Kohler)

159. Spectrum of definitions Ken Haggart

160. Balance (Earth Illustrated) (see also Altran)

161. 5 capitals (Sigma project)

162. What, for how long? (National Academy of Sciences 1999)

163. Handprint (Action towards sustainability)

164. Increasing commitment Peter Mellalieu

165. Learning to do values framework (UNEVOC)

166. Commons river (from Barnes’ Capitalism 3.0)

167. Sustainable business value matrix (SustainAbility and UNEP 2001, used in simplified form here).

168. Ecosystem services (from Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, pdf, used in scenarios)

169. The maintenance of Ecosystem services with time, space and interventions (MEA, applied by Pereira to Sistel Portugal)

170. Invisible losses (Turner, in relation to Canadian aboriginal perspective).

171. Self-organising holarchic eco-social systems (Waltner-Toews, see also scale effects).

172. 3 Venn and Strong seen as stages along a continuum (Engineering for Sustainable Development)

173. Ecological footprint/deficit map (Pierce)

174. How many planets? (from UK Interdependence Report) See also WWF One Planet Living

175. Nested adaptive cycles (Holling)

The growth phase we’re in may seem like a natural and permanent state of affairs-and our world’s rising complexity, connectedness, efficiency, and regulation may seem relentless and unstoppable-but ultimately it isn’t sustainable…

I think rapidly rising connectivity within global systems-both economic and technological-increases the risk of deep collapse. That’s a collapse that cascades across adaptive cycles-a kind of pancaking implosion of the entire system as higher-level adaptive cycles collapse, which causes progressive collapse at lower levels.” (Holling in Worldwatch)

(applied to Western Australian agriculture by Allison and Hobbs)

176. Human ecosystem model (Machlis)

The human ecosystem is defined asa coherent system of biophysical and social factors capable of adaptation and sustainability over time. Human ecosystems rest upon a foundation of abiotic and biotic factors taken as base conditions: a solar-driven energy system obeying thermodynamic properties, biogeochemical cycles of high constancy, landforms and geological variation of great complexity, the full genetic structure of life including biophysical properties of homo sapiens. The base conditions limit, constrain, influence and occasionally direct many human ecosystem processes. Boundaries can be spatially identified through ecological transition zones, administrative and political boundaries, or more fine-scaled analysis of sharp perturbations in system flows

177. Steady state economy (in comparison with standard growth model) Herman Daly. Summary from SANZ.

The Standard (Growth) Economy diagram is equivalent to the Triple Bottom Line and Mickey Mouse models. It assumes the possibility of evergrowing cycles of production and consumption without considering the role of the supporting ecosystem, thus establishing the belief that there are no biophysical limits to growth of the economy.

By comparison, the Steady State Economy diagram represents stabilised population and consumption. Resource throughput and waste disposal remain roughly constant, the scale of economic activities fits within the capacity provided by ecosystems, there is fair distribution of wealth, and allocation of resources is efficient.

178. Integral framework (Wilber’s integral quadrats, used by Barrett Brown) applied by Winton (in Br0wn).

179. Brown’s 15 elements of Ecovillage living

180. The Barometer of Sustainability (ICUN)

The Barometer of Sustainability is the only performance scale that measures human and ecosystem wellbeing together without submerging one in the other. The Barometer’s key features are:
• Two axes, one for human wellbeing, the other for ecosystem wellbeing. This enables each set of indicators to be combined independently, keeping them separate to allow analysis of people-ecosystem interactions.
• The axis with the lower score overrides the other axis in the analysis. This prevents a high score for human wellbeing from offsetting a low score for ecosystem wellbeing, or vice versa. This approach reflects the view that people and the ecosystem are equally important and that sustainable development must improve and maintain the wellbeing of both.

181. ‘The Egg of Sustainability’ (Robert Prescott-Allen, in IUCN, 1995)

182. Red triangle/Green Circle (from SustainAbility Gearing Up).

These high friction worlds are represented by the red triangle: low levels of trust increase friction in the system, with different sectors fighting (or ‘scapegoating’) each other.

183. Mapping environmental problems by management and revsersibility (UNEP Geo4)

184. Global environmental outlook framework (UNEP Geo4)

Net gains in human well-being facilitated by the social and economic sectors have, however, been at the cost of growing environmental changes, and the exacerbation of poverty for some groups of people

185. Shrinking Earth (UNEP Geo4)

186. Sustainability Asymptogram (Onwueme and Borsari – Proquest link)

100 percent sustainability is a perfect state that is practically unattainable by anybody or any system. No matter how good a person or system is, there is always a sustainability deficit that cannot be overcome, as entropy affects living systems and their physical habitats without exceptions. This means that there is always room for improvement. Different persons or systems are located at different levels on the curve, with larger or smaller sustainability deficits, but with deficits all the same.

187. Meadows’ framework (after Daly). (Balaton Group)

I see the triangle as saying there’s no way human ends can be realized without healthy, functioning natural and economic systems

188. Ecosphere as a mail sorter (Collins)

Imagine all of Earth’s chemistry as a mail sorter’s wall of letter slots in a post office, with the network of compartments extending toward infinity (see the bottom figure, next page). Each compartment represents a separate chemistry so that, for example, thousands of compartments are associated with stratospheric chemistry or with a human cell. An environmentally mobile persistent pollutant can move from compartment to compartment, sampling a large number and finding those compartments that it can perturb. Many perturbations may be inconsequential, but others can cause unforeseen catastrophes, such as the ozone hole or some of the manifestations of endocrine disruption. Most compartments remain unidentified and even for known compartments, the interactions of the pollutant with the compartment’s contents can usually not be foreseen, giving ample reason for scientific humility when considering the safety of persistent mobile compounds.

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