Skip over main navigation
  • Log in
  • Basket: (0 items)
Forum for the Future
  • Search
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Youtube
  • Medium
Get Involved Newsletter
Menu
  • Who we are
    • About us
    • Where we work
    • Who we work with
    • Working at Forum
    • Meet the team
    • Our Trustees
    • Annual Reports
  • What we do
    • Creating ambitious change strategies
    • Convening systemic collaborations
    • Equipping people to drive change
  • Global challenges
    • Climate change
    • Food
    • Supply chains
    • Circular Economy
  • System Change
    • School of System Change
    • Sustainability and system change
  • Understanding the future
    • What is futures?
    • Futures Centre
    • Future of Sustainability
  • News & Insights
    • Blog & Insights
    • A Compass for Just and Regenerative Business
    • Events
    • Media Centre
    • Publication Library
    • Trajectories
    • 3BL (Triple Bottom Line) Media News Feed
  • Admin
    • Log in
  • Basket: (0 items)
  • Sustainability and system change
  1. System Change
  2. Sustainability and system change

Sustainability and system change

‘Sustainability is a dynamic process which enables all people to realise their potential and to improve their quality of life in ways that simultaneously protect and enhance the Earth’s life support system.’ Forum for the Future 

Why system change for sustainability?

Climate change, malnutrition, inequality, poverty, ecological degradation. The world faces many complex, interrelated challenges, and it is clear many of our fundamental systems are broken. Unless we can understand the bigger picture in which these challenges sit, we will only end up mitigating problems or providing superficial solutions.

The global challenges we face are so urgent and tricky that we need a solution to match their scale and complexity. This is where system change comes in. We use systems thinking to understand the web of interrelations that create complex problems, anticipate unintended consequences, and identify how and where to take action. Systems thinking teaches you to see how individuals, places, businesses, actions, and innovations are interconnected. It is our way to respond to a complex, changing world. 

What is system change?

A system is a configuration of parts connected by a web of relationships towards a purpose. It can be an ecosystem, such as the marine environment, the food system or socially created systems such as education and health. Systems can be small, such as organisations, or large, such as the whole economy.

A systems approach shifts the focus from individual parts to how the parts are organised, recognising that interactions of the parts are not static and constant but dynamic and fluid.

Systemic change is where relationships between different aspects of the system have changed towards new outcomes and goals. And it’s driven by transformational, not incremental change.

How do you change a system?

Ready to change systems with us?

To find out how we can help you, contact our team of change agents.

Want to build your skills as a change agent? Check out our courses at the School of System Change

Published: 7th March, 2018

Updated: 7th May, 2020

Author: George Harding-Rolls

Share this page
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Latest

  • Honorary Treasurer & Trustee

    Honorary Treasurer & Trustee

    We are looking for a treasurer who believes, as we do, to accelerate the transformation to a just and regenerative future and who is keen to use their skills, experience and networks to help govern our organisation.

  • Is there a just and regenerative future post-Roe? Four lessons and calls to action from practitioners of systems change

    Is there a just and regenerative future post-Roe? Four lessons and calls to action from practitioners of systems change

    In 1973, abortion was made legal across the US after a landmark ruling known as Roe v. Wade. The US Supreme Court has now overturned that right. In its widespread implications, set to ripple way beyond reproductive rights, the move represents a significant threat to what’s urgently needed: a future that is socially just, as well as ecologically sound. Here, Forum for the Future’s Associate Director of Global Development, Priya Kvam, explores the issue as a systemic challenge and outlines four ke

  • Pathfinder

    Pathfinder–a six-week long deep dive into systems change equips change makers with frameworks and tools to increase their capacity to work more systemically on complex challenges.

  • Neil Walker

    Neil Walker

    Change Designer

Most read

  • The Five Capitals - a framework for sustainability

    The Five Capitals - a framework for sustainability

    The Five Capitals Model provides a basis for understanding sustainability in terms of the economic concept of wealth creation or ‘capital’. Any organisation will use five types of capital to deliver its products or services. A sustainable organisation will maintain and where possible enhance these stocks of capital assets, rather than deplete or degrade them.

  • Reinventing the way the world works.

    Reinventing the way the world works.

    Forum for the Future is a leading international sustainability non-profit. We specialise in addressing critical global challenges by catalysing change in key systems, from food to apparel, energy to shipping. We do this by convening transformational collaborations to drive change, by partnering with organisations to help them lead by example, and by building a global community of pioneers and change makers.

  • Jobs

    We are a growing organisation and we are regularly on the look out for new recruits to join our teams around the world.

  • Sustainability and system change

    Sustainability and system change

    Climate change, malnutrition, inequality, poverty, ecological degradation. The global challenges we face are so urgent and tricky that we need a solution to match their scale and complexity. This is where system change comes in. We use systems thinking to understand the web of interrelations that create complex problems, anticipate unintended consequences, and identify how and where to take action to meet the SDG goals.

  • Become a system change agent

    Become a system change agent

    Learn more about upcoming system change programmes and express your interest.

  • What is Net Positive?

    What is Net Positive?

    We reinvent strategies for a 1.5°C world. Our Net Positive approach helps business put back more into society and environment than it takes out. Unilever’s pioneering commitment to eliminate fossil fuels from its operations and directly support the generation of more renewable energy than they consume was driven behind the scenes by Forum.

  • Growing our Future USA

    Growing our Future USA

    Working together to accelerate the transition to a just and regenerative agriculture system in the United States.

  • Trailblazing sustainability strategies

    Trailblazing sustainability strategies

    Leadership in the 2020s is about your organisation’s ability to positively influence its operating context. We help you to understand the opportunities, and then how to unlock them.

  • Cotton 2040

    Cotton 2040

    Cotton 2040 aims to create a resilient cotton industry in an increasingly climate-disrupted world by bringing together stakeholders across the value chain.

  • 6 ways Unilever has achieved success through sustainability - and how your business can too

    6 ways Unilever has achieved success through sustainability - and how your business can too

    A year ago this week, Unilever launched its Sustainable Living Plan (USLP), one of the most ambitious strategies that a global company has ever embarked on. Pioneering a bold new business model, the company pledged to double in size at the same time as halving its environmental footprint.

Tag cloud

Behaviour Change Business Circular Economy Climate Change Economy Forum Blog India Innovation Jonathon Porritt Leadership Supply Chain Sustainable Business System Change System Innovation The Big Shift Waste

Sign up for our newsletter

Your privacy and security is of the utmost importance to us. Read our 'Privacy Policy' for information on how your data is handled. 
  • Contact
  • Sitemap
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Jobs
  • Media Centre
  • My Details
  • Organisational Policies
  • Sign up for our newsletter

Forum for the Future is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales.

Registered office: 3rd Floor, 22-26 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4QE, UK. Charity No. 1040519. Company No. 2959712. VAT Reg. No. GB 186 2230 12.