ITEE Innovation Expo 2008 : Project Details

SD Trek: Sustainability Modelling

Governments, companies and individuals are experiencing increased pressure to act in ways that address social and ecological prosperity while remaining economically viable. Recently, the terms Sustainability and Sustainable Development have been coined to capture the concepts behind this awareness.

Sustainability is a major challenge to business and subsequently to engineering. Businesses use financial models as the primary measure of performance; though to date these have failed to deliver outcomes that sustain both ecosystems and society. Scientific evidence suggests ecosystem services are threatened by, and are being degraded and depleted as a result of human activities.

There is a need for modelling to allow business to measure the externalised social/ecological impacts in a quantifiable economic way. Modelling allows a business to alter impacts and observe the economic outcomes.

The purpose of the thesis is to begin the development of a modelling tool SD Trek which incorporates resource and ecosystem limitations into a business profitability forecast. The tool is intended to be used as a high level consulting mechanism, enabling organisations to predict how activities today can lead to increasing risks to the profitability of the business. The thesis presents the outcomes of research to define the context of SD Trek and what it aims to achieve, and then describes the basis for the development of the tool through the application to a case study.

The findings of the case study identify that when ecosystem and resource constraints are internalised, decoupling from these constraints is a key component to maintaining profitability.