System Thinking Approach in Relation to Sustainability - Essay Example

SYSTEM THINKING APPROACH IN RELATION TO SUSTAINABILITY By Student’s Name Code + Course Name Professor’s Name University Cite, State Date Introduction The future of organisations in ensuring the adherence to sustainability development remains elusive to this date (Chazal, 2010). The current operating environment demands that organisations derive unique ways of dealing with matters related to economic growth while at the same ensuring protection of the environment from possible ecological distortions (Chazal, 2010). Thus, it can be argued that the need for adopting fairly-balanced sustainability requires that organisations embark on a system thinking approach as a way of coming up with effective techniques that can be used for managing possible level of risks that might emanate from any unnecessary end results. The purpose of this paper therefore rests with examining the notion that sustainability requires well-calculated system thinking approach especially in such matters related to climatic changes. The Sustainability State There has been continued requirement for effective sustainability amongst the numerous organisations operating within different industries across the globe. Numerous agencies and stakeholders at large have continued to facilitate platforms that necessitate for efficient operations (Dominici, 2015). Sustainable development have entirely been incorporated into numerous activities of operations such as urban and industrial growths by way of formulating imminent strategic plans that could help drive the agenda of sustainability into the future. This is especially because the last few decades have been seen to overlook the practice altogether (Dominici, 2015). Notwithstanding, most of the leading producers of products and services across the world have been called to ensure that they operate within the limits offered by effective sustainable development in regards to production processes and, also positive customer service expectations (Dominici, 2015). Organisations across the globe have portrayed their high-level of commitment by adopting efficient ways of conducting production so that they can operate within the recommended standards in regards to climatic change. For instance, there has been a perceived level of improvement in relation to how these organisations manage their emissions into the environment so that they cannot surpass the recommended standards set to oversee global greenhouse gas emission expectations (Emery, 2013). In consequence, organisations operate within the global guidelines as presented by the global agencies concerned with overseeing climatic changes attributed to effects of global warming (Dilley, 2014). These organisations are made to pay exorbitant amounts of money in order to continue with their operations especially in cases where these operations result to unexpected effects on the surrounding environment (Dilley, 2014). This has fostered environmental savvy operations that have ensured operations do not distort the life-cycle environmental guidelines. The ballooning industrial development in such economies like China and Africa especially in mining industries has continued to pose a substantial level of risk in matters related to unplanned climatic changes (Kuei & Lu, 2013). Thus, guidelines put in place in these areas are more stringent enough to ensure sustainable development does not affect the surrounding environments (Porter & Derry, 2012). The possibility of the fact that most of the world’s population are moving towards resettlement into cities poses a risk of consuming available lands while pushing communities nearer production plants, which has the effect of distorting their health as well as leading to depletion of resources within these areas hence catapulting the level of negative climatic changes (Kuei & Lu, 2013). In consequence, it is fundamental to understand the fact that sustainable development for organisations plays a significant function of ensuring environmental protection so that its effects cannot result to levels of negative climatic changes (Philippe & Bansal, 2013). This fundamental facet solely depends on the fact that organisations could only depend on a well-tested and proven system thinking technique as a way of operating within the required standards, which helps to maintain a natural environmental presence (Nguyen & Bosch, 2013). Systems thinking approach ensures that sustainable development in such areas as industrial growth and production processess do not result to climatic alterations that arises from ineffective operations. While it remains a challenge for organisations to distinctive measure the existing level of sustainable development, the aspect of environmental sustainability still requires effective system thinking approach to oversee challenges attributed to production processess and overall operations (Nguyen & Bosch, 2013). As much as individual people might aspire to ensure that organisation’s immediate operations are conducted within a given sustainable phase, in most of the times it becomes a very challenging aspect to evaluate the expected level of sustainable development that will be accomplished within any given time (Nguyen & Bosch, 2013). There is a possibility of the fact that the environmental impacts play only a smaller role in affecting the overall climatic changes given that inefficient decisions and actions will results to negative outcomes that will go a long way to lead to un-sustainability of the overall surrounding environment. In fact, this is the reason for emphasising on developing a detailed and efficient system thinking approach that will help to make critical and workable decisions (Nguyen & Bosch, 2013). The process of coming up with planned and sustainable developmental goals is entirely focused on the level of understanding put towards ensuring effective resolutions to oversee climatic changes in place (Nguyen, Graham, Ross, Maani, & Bosch, 2012). It is indeed affected by the way of putting more efforts on the existing sustainable goals and objectives within a given timeframe. In political environment, the aspect of sustainable environmental policies can help to formulate and implement efficient policies that will guide organisations to ensure that their operations fall only within certain levels of guidelines (Seebode, Jeanrenaud, & Bessant, 2012). For this case, the importance of system thinking and its approach will thus facilitate sustainability aspect by incorporating directly and indirectly affected stakeholders concerned with climatic changes. System Thinking Approach In Regards to Sustainability The current formulations and framework, put in place to oversee the process of sustainable development, have mostly been directed towards the supervision of industrial ecology, which helps to reduce and, also eliminate if possible un-sustainability levels as opposed to reinforcement of the overall systematic foundation (Sekerka & Stimel, 2012). There is a fundamental need for reconsideration and redesigning of overall ecosystems and imminent industrial systems in ways that help to steer sustainable functionalities towards natural equilibrium points and for that reason eliminate negative climatic changes. Any activities that result to failure of achieving sustainable development postulate the fact that stable equilibriums are a task to attain at any given moment (Videira, Lopes, Antunes, Santos, & Casanova, 2012). For instance, the pressures that emanate from recent climatic movements posit a likelihood of distortion of the existing environmental life cycle. This means that, for organisations to effectively achieve sustainability levels, they should prioritise aspects related to resilience as well as adaptive industrial systems that promote ecological systems (Bender & Judith, 2015). Resilience is a crucial element in system thinking approach since it dictates whether or not an organisation will survive, adapt and even create resolution in cases of possible challenges (Sajeva, Sahota, & Lemon, 2015). It helps organisational management teams to prioritise total material production in safe and healthy working environment as opposed to only focusing on profit maximisation (Willard, Wiedmeyer, Warren Flint, Weedon, Woodward, Feldman, & Edwards, 2010). Most notably, a larger section of resilient-generative and environment systems are reconsidered and redesigned in way that will allow survival and adaption to possible risks hence protecting processess against environmental disruptions that might play a critical role in affecting the level of climatic changes (Nguyen & Bosch, 2013). It thus means that successful operations should be only conducted within a set equilibrium point where possibilities of inherent resilience are also manifested at all times. Inherent resilience is yet another crucial strategy that organisations can adopt as a system thinking approach as an alternative to ensure the accomplishment of equilibrium points at all times (Lozano, 2014). Inherent resilience defines the manner for which organisation can employ elements attributed to diversification, efficiencies and cohesion of activities. A perfect example rests with the green engineering that promotes designs that promotes production of processess that assist with elimination of hazardous consequences, which has the effect of resulting to negative climatic conditions (Allen, 2010). Climatic changes are affected by the aspect of system thinking mechanism in cases where effects of infrastructural developments are underway. Interest groups as well as relevant stakeholders are thus called to formulate efficient environmental policies that relate to realising organisational objectives and production processes in a way that easily fits in with climatic changes. Technological advancement should be employed to eliminate possibilities of conducting faulty production processess that might result to negative climatic alterations. In fact, it will be important for involving relevant stakeholders in every aspect of policy formulation so that they can ensure significant regulations are set in place to oversee matters related to sustainability. In concluding the above discussion, it is affirmative that system thinking approach plays a significant role in ensuring sustainable development. Inherent resilience is one of the most sought after system thinking approach which promotes aspects related to survival, adapt and even create efficient ecological systems as in the case of environmental developments in organisations’ operations. A Resilient-generated system is a more specific approach that promotes diversification of sustainable development. 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