Integrating Sustainability in Decision Making
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Summary
Incorporate sustainability and design thinking methodologies in your practice of organizational leadership.
This practical course will teach participants how to incorporate sustainability and design thinking methodologies in their practice of organizational leadership. The skills gained will result in a clear and measurable impact on your organization’s sustainability portfolio in a complex and ever-changing ecosystem.
Program Overview
The skills gained in this program will result in a clear and measurable impact on your organization’s sustainability portfolio in a complex and ever-changing ecosystem.
Learning sustainability and design thinking will enable professionals to develop the knowledge, skills, and mindset needed to drive meaningful change towards a more sustainable future. This online course offers tools for participants to transform ideas, concepts and vision into actionable plans and roadmaps. Participants will leave this course with a roadmap to implement change.
Integrating Sustainability in Decision Making will address the following:
- Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration Skills: Many professionals work in silos without collaborating across disciplines to address sustainability challenges. Learn to work effectively in interdisciplinary teams and engage stakeholders in sustainable decision-making processes.
- Understanding of Sustainability: Many professionals have a narrow understanding of sustainability principles beyond basic concepts.
- Design Thinking Methodologies: While some professionals may be familiar with basic design thinking, they may lack practical experience in using design thinking to innovate sustainable solutions.
- Integration of Systems Thinking: Professionals often overlook the importance of systems thinking in sustainability initiatives.
- Decision-Making Skills in Sustainability Contexts: Many professionals don’t know how to make informed decisions considering sustainability factors. Understand decision-making frameworks tailored to sustainability contexts, including ethical considerations, uncertainty, and long-term impacts.
- Practical Tools and Techniques: Learn practical tools and techniques, such as life cycle assessment, stakeholder engagement, and scenario planning, to design and implement sustainable solutions effectively.
- Case Studies and Best Practices: Professionals will learn from successful examples and analyzing failures to apply lessons to their own projects.
Objectives & Highlights
- Understand the principles and concepts of sustainability, design thinking, systems thinking, and decision-making
- Analyze the interconnections between sustainability, design thinking, systems thinking, and decision-making and their implications for addressing complex societal and environmental challenges
- Apply design thinking methodologies to develop innovative solutions that integrate sustainability principles and address systemic issues
- Utilize systems thinking tools and frameworks to analyze and intervene in complex systems, considering the interconnectedness of social, environmental, and economic factors
- Apply a multi-disciplinary approach to problem-solving, drawing on principles from sustainability, design thinking, systems thinking, and decision-making to develop holistic solutions
- Employ various tools and techniques, such as life cycle assessment, scenario planning, and stakeholder engagement, to design and implement sustainable solutions effectively
- Critically analyze case studies and best practices in sustainability, design, systems thinking, and decision-making to extract lessons learned and apply them to real-world challenges
- Foster creativity and innovation in the classroom by addressing sustainability challenges by exploring diverse perspectives and experimenting with new approaches
- Develop communication and collaboration skills necessary for working across disciplines and engaging stakeholders in sustainable decision-making and implementation processes
Major topics to be covered:
- Introduction to Sustainability and Design Thinking
- Understanding Health & Environmental Challenges
- Integrating Sustainability into Design Thinking
- Sustainable Design Strategies
- Tools and Techniques for Sustainable Innovation
- Case Studies and Best Practices
Participants may be hospital administrators interested in sustainable hospital management, health care facility managers focused on sustainable infrastructure and operations, physicians interested sustainable practices in clinical settings, medical device designers working on user-friendly medical devices, or health care IT professionals working towards sustainable health informatics systems.
Also invited to participate are public health administrators implementing sustainable practices, environmental health specialists focused on the intersection of health and environment sustainability, engineers, architects, business leaders, policymakers, educators, policy and business leaders interested in the intersection of sustainability within their purview.
Anas Chalah, PhD
Assistant Dean for Teaching and Learning, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Michael R. Labosky, MS, CIH, CSP
Director of Safety and Environmental Programs, MIT