How can we drive multiple sustainability outcomes simultaneously? Professor Andy Stirling and discussants
Required shifts to a more sustainable society mean working on many fronts at once. This can be overwhelming. There are many potential drivers of change, just as there are many forms of incumbency and inertia that need to be overcome. This complexity can lead individuals and organisations, understandably, to ‘stick to their knitting’ and focus on piecemeal contributions. In turn, a narrow focus can result in disjointed, uncoordinated and fractured activities that lead to ‘unintended’ outcomes. Potential examples are numerous: the scaling of a critical minerals industry in Australia could have diverse social, cultural and environmental consequences, depending on how it is developed and implemented; the use of the land sector to off-set other sectors creates diverse risks for farming communities and food security; the shift to an electrified urban transport system could have very differing consequences for health and equity depending on which options are prioritised, by whom.
Navigating such uncertainties can be usefully aided by linking approaches that work in different ways to steer outcomes. This is the argument of our guest speaker, Professor Andy Stirling. With his colleagues, Andy has explored how different approaches to driving sustainability can be considered together, and potentially, operate synergistically.
In this talk Andy will provide an overview of these approaches, how they can be understood and applied synergistically, and his current thinking and analysis about options for linking structural, systemic and enabling approaches in different settings. Structural approaches relate to deep changes in the ways consumption and production are governed, organised and enacted. Systemic approaches focus on interactions and interdependencies across institutions (e.g. policies), technologies, and wider social processes to steer change in complex systems. Enabling approaches focus on people, their values and goals, and collective capacities to navigate and act to create preferred futures.
Andy’s talk will be followed by an engaging, moderated discussion with leaders in CSIRO and beyond, to explore the implications and potential to link integrate these approaches in applied work. Our speaker, discussants and moderator are introduced below.
