A Systems Framework for Sustainability

The current concerns over climate change and global warming has created a new vocabulary and brought about a whole new emphasis on a broad set of issues collectively referred to as sustainability. This rather novel concept is now well established within the scientific community principally advocating a global and ecological perspective focused on the survivability of Gaia and its ability to sustain life as a going concern. In this paper, we explore the rationale and a structured framework for a broader perspective on sustainability as applicable to products, processes, systems and undertakings including the global and natural systems. In this new paradigm, sustainability is an emergent behavioural and structural attribute with many facets including a social dimension. This brings a value Judgement on the softer aspects of the framework that by necessity embodies a suite of hard and soft factors. The sustainability framework thus developed is intended as a systems paradigm for elaboration, representation, communication, validation, evaluation, assessment and overall assurance of this fundamental facet of our modern endeavours that is proving an indispensable aspect of human survival on earth. The proposed systemic sustainability framework comprises social, economic, technological, resource as well as environmental dimensions. Each element of this framework is in turn developed into more detailed set of influencing factors which are conducive to attainment of that particular aspect ultimately intended to enable characterisation, evaluation, benchmarking and assessment of each facet of sustainability in a product, process, system, system of systems or undertaking/project. In this spirit, we develop and propose the framework as a unifying strategic paradigm that embodies many engineering, commercial, societal and environmental performance requirements from reliability, safety and security to bio diversity and social inclusion. It is through evaluation, assessment and qualification/benchmarking of the key facets to sustainability that products, systems and undertakings can be objectively compared and contrasted for their specific and overall sustainability qualities. This would pave the way for risk/reward based informed decision making, better customer choices and more effective regulation.