The complexities of sustainability and design: How sustainable are our systems designs?: Can we design systems for sustainability?

Systems design is complex to begin with but even more so when requirements of ‘sustainable design’ are added. This notion is of particular relevant to communities interested in building systems that contribute to greening the planet, i.e., with environmental sustainability of technology-based systems. The solution potential of such ‘sustainability systems’ is immense but impact to date is sparse. Industry scandals like the Dieselgate affair also demonstrate the relevance, complexities and intricacies associated with such systems. In this keynote I will critically review systems design research concerned with sustainability. I will point to several challenges and problems that hamper progress and then present new insights into the ongoing development of a meaningful ‘grand’ theory of sustainable systems design with prescriptive design principles that can hopefully lead to more impactful solution-oriented systems design research on sustainability.