Design for a Sustainable Future

Sustainable development,

• intellectual and moral underpinnings

• history of sustainability thought and global policy frameworks

• sustainable human development from a big history perspective

• sustainable human development from a political economical perspective

• evolutionary perspective: societal resilience and collapse, collective learning processes, evolutionary search

• visioning; utopian and dystopian futures

• defining and measuring human progress; sustainable development goals

• sustainable design, responsible innovation and sustainable development

Managing complex challenges

• complexity and wicked problems

• fallacies and biases

• critical and systems thinking, practical wisdom

• elementary complex problem solving

• incorporation of complexity in analysis tools

Assessment and decision support methods

• material flow analysis
• life cycle assessment
• financial feasibility analysis
• actor analysis
• quick scan tools for technology assessment
• scenario analysis and visioning
• multi criteria analysis

Alongside a lecture series, the course includes a 6 weeks design sprint tackling a specific sustainability challenge.

Upon completing Design for a Sustainable Future Exploratory, you should be able to:

1. Understand sustainable development and responsible technology in its multiple dimensions
2. Understand characteristics of complex (wicked) problems
3. Can apply different analytical methods to pick your battles and assess options regarding sustainable performance.