Systems Thinking - Climate Change and Sustainable Decision Making

Overview

The Systems Thinking - Climate Change and Sustainable Decision Making course at the University of Glasgow is intended for a wide range of learners who want to learn skills and understanding of the complexities of making decisions in post-pandemic world in the context of the climate emergency and sustainable/just transition.

By the end of this course students should be able to:

• Describe what systems thinking is, why it is relevant to climate change and sustainability.
• Evaluate the potential value and contribution of systems thinking in supporting ESG and CSR [a systems approach will naturally leverage pro-environmental orientation of individuals within organisations to act toward their strengths and interests]
• Explore different ways in which systems thinking can be applied in practice by individuals and organisations to support problem-solving, decision-making and organisational learning
• Evaluate case studies of system orientated responses to climate change
• Apply a set of ‘synergistic analytic skills’ including: Systems mapping to enable problem framing and scoping; Scenario thinking to support individuals to explore plausible futures
• Understand that due to the complexity and dynamic nature of systems, intuitive decision-making does not always lead to expected outcomes.

Career Prospects

Skills learned in this course will be directly applicable to a wide range of workplaces and will be desirable to companies/organisations trying to make the changes needed for the transition to net zero and responsive to new policies and regulations that will drive the need for change.