There is now a realisation that the challenges now faced by the world are so interconnected that no one discipline can provide all the answers. The hunt for more sustainable methods of growth is an example of this. The need to balance the impact on energy consumption, agriculture, health, the economy and our communities highlights how a deeper understanding of the complex makeup of the interconnections involved is essential to the development of effective solutions to difficult problems.
This interconnectedness is summed up as ‘systems thinking’ which was the focus of SCI's third Where Science Meets Business conference, held at the Society's headquarters in London in November. The conference brought together senior academics and business decision-makers to look at the challenges of building sustainable methods to support everything from agriculture and energy to consumer goods.
Sustainability requires systems thinking
Opening the day, Professor Fred Dahlmann, associate professor of strategy and sustainability at Warwick Business School, said that at the heart of sustainability is systems thinking. “Systems are everywhere. Systems are a nice lens to help us look at and make sense of the problems that we are facing and allow us to bring a wide body of people together to understand or support that system.” But, within any system we can end up becoming siloed, he said.
“Sustainability reminds us that we need to be open-minded and appreciative of all the systems that are around us - and the interconnections between them,” he said. Instead, to appreciate the connections we need to take a wider view.
“It is necessary to step back and start to look at the whole macro socio-ecological systems that are fundamentally shaping the condition of our societies, economies, and our planet. This is at the heart of systems thinking,” Dahlmann added.
This socio-ecological system, which encompasses the planet, its soils and water and the impacts of human activity from production to consumption through to culture, values and beliefs, has business as a “critical actor and mediator between these different systems,” Dahlman (seen above) noted.
Mapping the interactions between the multiple factors driving the systems allows for a better understanding of the challenges faced in integrating sustainability into existing systems. “Systems mapping can help us to understand what it is motivating actions and outcomes within a system. The process is complex, but it will lead to sustainable outcomes that have longevity,” Dahlmann added.
Understanding the systems means you should be able to identity the potential levers of change which can lead to better and more sustainable outcomes.
Supporting agricultures sustainability
In agriculture, systems thinking in the face of climate change has been in place for some time. Healthy soils and livestock, clean water, supporting local communities are necessities for agricultural systems to thrive. At the same time businesses and consumers are essential parts of the agricultural system. So how do they all support one another to ensure the resilience and sustainability across agricultural systems?
This was among the questions considered by a panel chaired by Steve Smith, science liaison lead at Syngenta. William Strong, Nestle’s regenerative agriculture manager, noted that while climate change did bring volatility to farmers, the company has worked with its suppliers for years to implement regenerative agricultural practices as well as ensure the health of the livestock. “The success of our agricultural suppliers is crucial to the success of our business, so supporting our suppliers in building resilience make sense,” Strong said.
Teresa Wyatt, head of business development and sustainability at Syngenta, shared a perspective on building resilience into the products that the company developed. “Our seed varieties need to support farmers and communities across the world. We need to know that the seeds we develop will thrive in a range of environments. Collaborating with farmers and finding out what they are seeing in their fields must be part of our systems thinking in seed and crop protection development.”
A sustainable biobased economy
Broader systems thinking can provide inspiration for cleaner routes to producing the products that we use every day. Professor Tim Long, from the Biodesign Center for Sustainable Macromolecular Materials and Manufacturing at Arizona State University, US, and editor in chief of SCI’s journal Polymer International explained how polymer scientists and engineers could think about circularity of their products when in the process of creating them. “We need to consume less plastic and reuse what we already have. But our systems are set that when the price of oil is low, it’s cheaper to produce plastic from fossil-based feedstocks,” Long said.
With the increasing reach of plastics, from oceans to space, Long put forward the idea that many of our products could use less plastic by “dematerializing” structures with geometrically complex 3D form factors. Manipulating chemistry can also lead to materials that are produced with less solvents and water, Long said.
The challenge of using less material in production or in the supply chain was one of the common themes of the conference. A panel discussion, chaired by Luuk Van der Wielen from Denmark’s Technical University, Delft University of Technology, and co-editor in chief of SCI’s journal SCI Sustainability (seen above), heard from four businesses: DSM Firmenich, Lanzatech, Novonesis and SkyNRG, with each company sharing perspective on how sustainability, along with systems thinking is embedded into their businesses with the aim of benefiting society.
Engaging the consumer
Ultimately systems thinking requires societal engagement, understanding the consequences of our consumer-based society.
Bringing the impacts of consumerism home, Sophie Thomas, founder and chief technology officer at Etsaw Ventures, set out the need for a change in consumption patterns, supported by better design. Could we reduce the extraction of rare earth elements needed in our electronics if improved design allowed for easier removal of these elements when the product came to the end of its life? Proposing that policy and regulation could play a role in improving product design, Thomas said that it is possible for products to be designed with their end-of-life in mind. “This requires collaboration right along the supply chain. How components are designed and manufactured, how they are assembled. We have a huge e-waste problem, but this waste is valuable. Simple design changes might help us realise this value and reduce the pressure we are putting on the natural environment.”
Across the conference there theme of systems thinking is and the need for a collaborative response was central.
Ian Howell, Unilever Homecare advanced materials and surface science team lead, talked about sustainability in action in industry.
He cited the award-winning Flue2Chem project, established with the aim of designing and validating a UK supply chain that uses carbon dioxide emissions from industrial flue gases as an alternative carbon source for chemicals, replacing virgin fossil carbon in consumer products like surfactants for detergents. The project brought together academics, producers from the foundation industries, carbon capture technologies, converters to create intermediate materials, and finally end users, with SCI responsible for disseminating the outcomes from the program. A total of 18 organisations were involved.
“People would have said that getting so many organisations, some of them competing, to work together isn’t possible. But it is, this is systems thinking. You have to do it,” he said.
Setting out the achievements Howell said: “Every part the project was hugely successful,” noting that the surfactants generated from the project showed no fall-off in performance compared with products produced by the traditional route, and life cycle analysis showed substantially reduced greenhouse gas emissions, but there is more work to be done to make the Flue2Chem concept economically viable.
There are hurdles to overcome, but sustainability, supported by systems thinking will underpin the future of our planet, its economy and its people.
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