Systems Thinking in the Age of Digital Ecosystems
9 am NY | 2 pm London | 3 pm Central Europe | 10 pm Beijing | Time Converter
Systems Thinking in the Age of Digital Ecosystems: Engaging with a Digitalized Sustainability Future
Traditional organizational structures and cultures are challenged in today’s world where nothing about business is usual anymore. Pandemic outbreaks, human-made environmental disasters, as well as the growing importance of artificial intelligence and new technologies, are forcing a rethink about the “taken as granted” in management. How can Systems Thinking support the call for world-making innovations?
About The Speaker
Michael von Kutzschenbach is inspired by the concept of sustainability as balancing corporate profits with environmental and social well-being. He believes that true sustainability can only be achieved through understanding different perspectives and working towards common goals. He aligns his daily actions with this approach, after studying Forest and Environmental Sciences, he received a Ph.D. researching informal networks, and currently works as a business mediator, lecturer, and project manager in various organizations in Germany, Norway, and Switzerland. His areas of research are the impacts of digitization on sustainable corporate management and sustainable entrepreneurship.
Bridging Two Worlds: Academia and Practitioners
Joint Seminar Series – System Dynamics Society & UiB MINDS
The Society and UiB Minds invite you to a series of four webinars with the goal of sharing experiences and perspectives from renowned professionals in the field of System Dynamics. MINDS (Mentoring in New Dimensions) is the student-led peer mentoring initiative within the System Dynamics Group at the University of Bergen. The initiative seeks to contribute towards knowledge-sharing and expanding horizons, as well as providing a platform for networking between past and current System Dynamicists.
Environmental and Natural Resource Group Meeting
A Monthly Meeting for Reviewing and Discussing System Thinking and Systems Dynamics presentations from Students and Practitioners on the topics of Energy, Water, Land Use (Agriculture & Food), and the Environment.
Topics to be added in advance of the meeting or submit a proposed presentation
https://airtable.com/shrXcSAqAeOo6MiMb
Contact – Joseph M. Londa
SDS Environmental SIG Leader
environment@systemdynamics.org
Green Action Global Connection Zone
The event website: https://climateaction.works/
Roberto Pasqualino and the Transboundary Groundwater Resilience Network of Networks are confirmed speakers. En-ROADS will have multiple workshops.
What: The Green Action Global Connection Zone (online) will connect NGOs, activists and institutions working on the ground in North America, South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania to protect our biodiversity. The online zone is a part of the CEPA Fair and a side event to the official COP15 Biodiversity conference taking place in Montreal from December 7-19.
The entire event will feature Indigenous ecological knowledge, stewardship and management, with Indigenous participation from around the world. The intention is to have broad land-based learnings shared with participants and attendees.
There will also be opportunities for interactive, hands-on activities, such as those offered by Biodiversity and Climate Fresks, to introduce a powerful and innovative way to learn more about the complex implications of biological diversity and climate change.
Our audience: action-oriented Indigenous groups and NGOs seeking to connect, strengthen ties, exchange knowledge and experience, to coalesce around concrete action.
We are seeking participants interested in networking with like-minded groups around the world, with the goal of working together to hold governments accountable to the objectives set at COP15, as well as pursuing our own biodiversity goals potentially set on this forum.
The format: workshops, meetings, presentations, and debates around major themes.
Online space will be available for exhibition booths, mainstage style featured guests and keynote speakers, small conference room discussions and presentations, and even a “rooftop” setting for casual networking.
When: Dec 11-12, 2022, continuously around the clock to accommodate all time zones
Programming on the main stage and in conference rooms will be periodic throughout the event.
Who: The event is co-organized by Climate Action Works/Peace Innovation Institute and the Global Greens. Associate co-organizers include MasseCritique, Ohneganos, the McGill Environment Student Society and other NGOs.
Where: The Bramble.Live platform
Sustainable Assets: Transition to Zero Emissions
November 24 at 11 am NY | 5 pm Central Europe
In this webinar on sustainable assets, we focus on the transition from current fossil physical assets to zero-emission physical assets. To make the transition to a sustainable society physical assets are an essential resource. Zero-emission assets have an important contribution to this transition.
The main topic of this webinar will be how simulations of different scenarios based on an underlying system dynamics model can give valuable insights to the stakeholders involved and facilitate decision-making in the transition process. Also, the importance of connecting sustainability approaches on a world scale, a regional scale, and a local scale will be highlighted i.e. relations between insights with the EN-ROADS Simulator (world scale) connected to a simulator on a national level.
Join Event: https://bit.ly/3UdM31q
Submission Deadline for Sustain Valencia 2022: Sustainable Groundwater Management
Valencia Polytechnic University (UPV) would like to invite you to the Sustainable Groundwater Management Conference, held from October 6-8, 2022 in Valencia, Spain. UPV is organizing a session on “Gaming and Behavioral Experiments for Sustainable Groundwater Management.” You’re cordially invited to contribute to this event with your paper abstracts, the submission deadline is June 15, 2022.
To find out more about the Conference, submissions, and register, visit the website.
Session description:
This session covers research and practice in gaming and behavioral experiments for sustainable groundwater management. Beyond their learning objectives, games within controlled experimental settings help understanding decision-making in complex environments and facilitate policy-making for sustainable resource use. Compared to other learning methods, gaming is efficient with higher learning outcomes through player interactions, entertaining aspects, information feedback, and post-gaming debrief sessions. Controlled experimental implementation of games is often used the delineate decision heuristics, which can support both learning and policymaking. Games can be contextualized within role-playing narratives and can be designed as on-board or computer simulations. Alternative gaming approaches and practices address different purposes and have comparative advantages related to a realistic representation of the decision-making context, resource dynamics, and feasibility for field applications. This session aims to give the floor to scholars to discuss their work in gaming applied to groundwater management.
System Dynamics for Climate Change Mitigation
Integrated System Dynamics models of economy and environment have long been used for research and decision support for sustainability problems, starting with the seminal work of World Dynamics and Limits to Growth. In this seminar, we will discuss how such models support decision-making, stakeholder, and public engagement for climate change and sustainability problems. We will reflect on existing models and tools, such as Climate Interactive’s En-ROADS and Millennium Institute’s iSDG tool, and their use cases. We’ll also be discussing how the Climate Change Initiative at UMass Lowell uses System Dynamics tools to raise awareness on climate change.
With Juliette Rooney-Varga, Carolyn McCarthy, Sibel Eker, and Steve Arquitt
About the Presenters
Climate Interactive is an independent, not-for-profit think-tank that grew out of MIT Sloan in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Based on a long tradition of system dynamics modeling, our simulations and insights help people see connections, play out scenarios, and see what works to address climate change, inequity, and related issues like energy, health, and food.
Dr. Sibel Eker is currently a Senior Researcher at Climate Interactive and a Research Scholar at International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria. Her interdisciplinary research profile combines systems analysis and engineering, decision sciences, and social sciences, and her work brings systems thinking and uncertainty focus to climate change and sustainability problems with model-based approaches. Complementing her academic experience, she has worked with several stakeholders and policy actors such as UK DBEIS, World Bank, EIT-Climate KIC, governmental and private organizations. Dr. Eker obtained her Ph.D. degree in 2016, from Delft University of Technology, with a focus on dealing with uncertainties in the Dutch natural gas sector. Prior to joining IIASA, she worked at University College London on integrated decision making in housing, energy, and well-being; and at the Delft University of Technology on the resilience of the transport network in Bangladesh.
Millennium Institute (MI) is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization passionate about improving the welfare of individuals on every continent by working with stakeholders to meet the challenges of sustainable development.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda, officially adopted by 193 countries, are envisioned as the world’s pathway to a sustainable future. The Goals are ambitious but the resources to achieve them are few. System dynamics models can help planners identify effective and cost-efficient combinations of interventions for progress toward the Goals. This presentation describes the Integrated Sustainable Development Goal (iSDG) model and its use in participatory planning for the SDGs.
Steven Arquitt, Ph.D. is a senior researcher and modeler with the Millennium Institute. He works with governments to develop plans for the UN Sustainable Development Goals using the iSDG System Dynamics model. Steve has worked on iSDG projects in Malawi, Namibia, and currently in Bhutan.
The Climate Change Initiative (CCI) is a UMass Lowell Research Center that informs and supports evidence-based climate action. Our research, education, and outreach foster a transition to a sustainable, resilient, and equitable society. Faculty collaborate on research, teaching, and community engagement activities; using a systems thinking framework to integrate across disciplines. We are committed to working with citizens, community organizations, and policymakers to ensure that our scholarly work benefits society directly.
Juliette N. Rooney-Varga is an expert on climate change and sustainability. She is the Director of the UMass Lowell Climate Change Initiative and associate professor of Environmental Science.
Carolyn McCarthy is a Program Associate at the UMass Lowell Climate Change Initiative where she develops and researches the learning impacts of simulation-based curriculum for low-income and first-generation-in-college students. Having previously guided strategic planning processes for cross-sector collaborative networks, her main interests are in the practical applications of systems thinking problem-solving for collective action. Carolyn earned a Master of Philosophy in System Dynamics at the University of Bergen, Norway, and a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree from the University of Vermont in Global Studies, Spanish, and Dance.