SUS512 Sustainability Project
Assessment 2 Description – Major Project
Part 1 Systems analysis: 1,500 words, Part 2: 500 words. Total 2000 words (excluding figures and references)
The major project should be presented in two parts submitted at the same time.
The following steps will help you to undertake Part 1 of the project.
Step 1 – Choose your sustainability problem and specific local area and clear boundary of area it affects
Choose one of the following seven sub-national sustainability problems on the basis of which one is most pressing in the town or local region (not nation) where you normally live.
- Lack of fresh water for human consumption and ecosystem health
- Insufficient clean, affordable and renewable energy supplies
- The unsustainable impact of per capita waste production and consumption
- Inadequate availability of affordable and sustainable housing
- Inadequate Biodiversity Protection and habitat for endangered species.
- Lack of sustainable, affordable and accessible transport networks and infrastructure
- Tree and ecosystem loss from urban development and sprawl
SUS512 Sustainability Project
Note you can choose another appropriate and specific sustainability problem with a specific place and boundary but this must be discussed with and approved with your tutor prior to week 7.
Briefly define the area and boundary of the local area where you will focus your project. This should be a specific Local Government, district, municipality, province or town. The reason for being specific about the scale of your project is to put a geographic, social and regulatory boundary around the problem you will be analysing.
When choosing your problem and defining the boundary you also need to ensure that credible up to date evidence on the problem is available. You should do some research of both popular sources like websites, newspapers or personal knowledge and experience AND academic journals, government reports, policy and other credible sources before settling on the problem and area. If you cannot not find enough evidence, You made need to draw in some evidence on the same topic from another location or chose a different topic or redefine the boundary.
You will need to write 200 words on why this issue is a priority concern in your area then you can start step 2.
SUS512 Sustainability Project
Step 2- Brainstorm all the factors that are impacts and possible causes of the sustainability problem
Use systems thinking tools and habits from Module 1, to help you identify the major factors that are influencing (positively or negatively) your chosen problem.
You may think about possible impacts and causes through each of these different lenses : social, ecological, economic, political, built form, cultural, knowledge. Please note: such a list of possible areas is just a prompt for your initial brainstorm, not a list of headings that need to be covered completely in the project. When it comes to explaining the elements and relationships in your iceberg diagram in step 4, they should be more context specific and evidence-based than these broad category headings.
Try to include everything about your chosen problem at this stage. Try to be specific about who the sustainability problem impacts, how and why. This may mean that your brainstorm or systems analysis will be extremely complex and messy, but don’t worry as you will refine this at the next step. Note that you may come back to this step and continue to develop this brainstorm as you progress through the steps and get a better understanding of the system and problem.
SUS512 Sustainability Project
Step 3 – Draw a diagram of an iceberg (applying the iceberg model). Show what can be observed on the surface and what is or may be below in terms of the patterns and trends underlying the problem, and the structures and mental models at the root of the problem.
Note: Step 2 and Step 3, Brainstorm and Ice-berg are both to be drawn by hand. Computer generated material will not be marked.
Step 4 You will need to justify in 1000 words what is above and what is below your iceberg with evidence. Your evidence can include personal or community observation or knowledge (particularly for top of iceberg) as well as credible reports and peer reviewed journals. These may give ideas of causal factors (below the surface) for the same problem even in a different geographic place. You need too highlight the relationship between the causal factors that sit beneath the iceberg and how they interact to produce the problem that is evident on the top of the iceberg.
You can draw from evidence from different, yet similar, areas facing the same problem (EG you might be looking at the Town of Victoria Park or Thimpu, or Dhakka but draw from evidence from a similar locality in Melbourne or Hanoi that has evidence about the root cause of your problem eg unsustainable low density urban planning that shapes travel habits)
This is the most crucial step in this project. This is the systems analysis where you will analyse the way in which the most important factors you have identified interact and influence each other, as well as how they influence the problem overall. Use systems thinking to examine the relationships you have identified.
SUS512 Sustainability Project
Major Project – Part 2 –leverage point and possible way forward
500 words total
The next part of the project is to make recommendations as to how the State or Local Government can address the sustainability problem analysed in Part 1. Choose one of the major sectors presented in the unit (Government, Business or Civil Society) to propose how they might address the problem, in partnership with other sectors or actors.
Step 5 – identify some possible leverage points on the basis of your prior analysis and evidence AND prioritise one.
Building on the systems analysis from Part I, you should be attempting to understand and identify what are effective leverage points (Abson 2016, Meadows 1999) within the system you studied. Having shown your possible leverage points choose one and explain the rationale for the leverage point you have chosen.
SUS512 Sustainability Project
In your report, provide a clear, evidence based, rationale for the leverage point by drawing on leverage point theory (see unit readings first). The leverage point needs to relate back to the iceberg and nature of the problem and the key elements and relationships and causal factors you identified in Part I. Do not just repeat a widely adopted solution already in action (EG municipal green waste composting or plastic or paper recycling in a locality that already offers this).
Step 6 – Explain how this leverage point could be implemented to maximise the potential for positive change. As part of this it will help you to Identify who would be involved (key stakeholders) and how you could measure the outcomes against the Sustainable Development Goals. APA.
