SustainableDevelopmentProfile

These cards are a tangible reflection of the online navigation tool. They are designed as a guide to help you explore the different attitudes, actions and knowledge relevant to the development of the 12 sustainability competences targeted by the T4SD project.

Attitude

Which attitude(s) would people use to describe you?

Attitude

What would you say you are good at?

Attitude

How do you confront complex situations?

Knowledge

Which knowledge areas are you using at school/work?

Knowledge

Which topics do you feel more confident with?

Knowledge

Have you studied any of these themes?

Skill

Which are the skills that you are best at?

Skill

What skills have you been trained in?

Skill

Which of these do you apply most frequently?

Valuing Sustainability

The capacity to self-reflect on one's values and actions while:

  •  Critically evaluating how these are aligned with sustainable values, principles, goals and targets, and how they can be negotiated depending on the context, conflict of interest and trade-offs.

  •  Promoting and supporting freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature, and taking on the responsibility of managing economic and social development globally.

Valuing Sustainability

Valuing Sustainability

Supporting Fairness

Supporting Fairness is understood to:

  • Support equity and justice for current and future generations and learn from previous generations for sustainability.

  • Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

  • Accelerate progress as an effective means for empowering those who are now losing out.

Supporting Fairness

Supporting Fairness

Promoting Nature

Promoting Nature involves:

  • The development, understanding and consciousness toward the biophysical environment and its problems, including human interactions and effects.

  • Promoting nature and learning from previous generations we can support equity and justice for all.

Promoting Nature

Promoting Nature

Systems Thinking

The ability to use systems theory to approach complex challenges, by being able to:

  • Recognize and understand relationships between elements that make up a system.

  • Think of how systems are embedded within different domains and scales

  • Think holistically, seeing that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”

  • Deal with uncertainty

Systems Thinking

Systems Thinking

Critical Thinking

The ability to critically assess information within the sustainability discourse to:

  • Questions norms, practices, and opinions

  • Identify assumptions and challenging the status quo

  • Reflect on one´s values perceptions and actions

  • Question how social and cultural backgrounds influence thinking and conclusions

Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking

Problem Framing

Problem Framing employs various frameworks while addressing complex sustainability problems to:

  • Develop viable, inclusive, and equitable solutions that promote sustainable development

  • Formulate current or potential challenges in terms of difficulty, people involved, time and geographical scope.

  • Mitigate and adapt to existing problems

  • Draw on pertinent disciplinary, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and other ways of knowing

Problem Framing

Problem Framing

Futures Literacy

The ability to envision and create possible future scenarios by:  

  • Applying the precautionary principle and protect society from harm

  • Assessing consequences

  • Managing risk and change

  • Providing individuals with the ability to cope with uncertainties and handle complexity empowering people to shape and design their preferred future scenario.

Futures Literacy

Futures Literacy

Adaptability

Adaptability is the ability to

  • Reflect on one´s own role in the local community as well as personal views, beliefs, arguments and interests

  • Motivate one´s actions and continually improve oneself drawing on competences related to emotional intelligence and social and emotional learning regarding societal issues in relation to sustainability challenges.

Adaptability

Adaptability

Exploratory Thinking

Exploratory Thinking is the abilities to:

  • Collectively develop and implement innovative actions and design strategies for sustainability,

  • Be able to recognize the historical roots and embedded resilience of deliberate and unintended unsustainability and the barriers to change.

  • Creatively plan innovative experiments to test strategies.

  • Find alternative ways to compete and provide value

Exploratory Thinking

Exploratory Thinking

Political Agency

Political Agency refers to the abilities to:

  • Navigate the political system, identify political responsibility and accountability for unsustainable behaviour

  • Demand effective policies for sustainability

  • Actively engage in the political process, contribute to policy making and positive, transformative change

  • Communicate and collaborate effectively for policy goals.

  • Enhance perceptions of possibilities to contribute

Political Agency

Political Agency

Collective Action

Collective Action is the capacity to act in collaboration with others while:

  • Enhancing the ability to learn from others

  • Relating to and being sensitive to others though empathic leadership

  • Truly engaging and motivating diverse stakeholders and to empathically work with collaborators’ and citizens’ different ways of knowing and communicating

  • Sharing (rather than hoarding) knowledge

Collective Action

Collective Action

Individual Initiative

Individual Initiative implies the capacity:

  • To navigate the political system, identify political responsibilities and accountability for unsustainable behavior and demand effective policies for sustainability, 

  • To identify own potential for sustainability and to actively contribute to improving prospects for the community and the planet.

Individual Initiative

Individual Initiative

Skill

Active Listening

Active listening is when you not only hear what someone is saying, but also attune to their thoughts and feelings. It requires the listener to feed back what they hear to the speaker, by paraphrasing what they have heard in their own words, to confirm what they have heard while also communicating with empathy. Active Listening eliminates superficial commentary, automatic responses of little value, ensuring that you receive information in an impactful way.

  • Valuing Sustainability
  • Supporting Fairness
  • Promoting Nature
  • Systems Thinking
  • Critical Thinking
  • Problem Framing
  • Futures Literacy
  • Adaptability
  • Exploratory Thinking
  • Political Agency
  • Collective Action
  • Individual Initiative
Attitude

Analytical

A person that is analytical examines or likes to examine things in detail, in order to discover more about them. Being analytical involves applying a logical, critical and methodical thought process when assessing information, or solving a problem. This includes looking for root causes, identifying variables or sources of error, and predicting their potential impact on the final outcome.

  • Valuing Sustainability
  • Supporting Fairness
  • Promoting Nature
  • Systems Thinking
  • Critical Thinking
  • Problem Framing
  • Futures Literacy
  • Adaptability
  • Exploratory Thinking
  • Political Agency
  • Collective Action
  • Individual Initiative
Skill

Analyzing Consequences

Consequence analysis involves the analysis of the potential of hazardous incidents that could cause injuries, fatalities, and damage to assets and the environment. A sequence of failures may result in a hazard becoming a major incident, and analysts need to determine the consequences of each of these hazards.

  • Valuing Sustainability
  • Supporting Fairness
  • Promoting Nature
  • Systems Thinking
  • Critical Thinking
  • Problem Framing
  • Futures Literacy
  • Adaptability
  • Exploratory Thinking
  • Political Agency
  • Collective Action
  • Individual Initiative
Skill

Argumenting

Argumentation is a set of arguments used to explain something or to persuade people. It is closely connected to critical and higher-order thinking. Whereas it is developed earlier in an oral form, argumentation is a more formalized process in writing. Argumentative writing involves thoughtful consideration of both sides of a debatable issue. It requires to consider how one should use language appropriately to justify their position and refute others.

  • Valuing Sustainability
  • Supporting Fairness
  • Promoting Nature
  • Systems Thinking
  • Critical Thinking
  • Problem Framing
  • Futures Literacy
  • Adaptability
  • Exploratory Thinking
  • Political Agency
  • Collective Action
  • Individual Initiative