Environmental Systems and Societies · Topic 1: Foundation

ES1.3 — Sustainability

Environmental Systems and Societies · SL / HL · syllabus-mapped notes

1. Sustainability and its three pillars

   Defining sustainability and the environmental, social and economic pillars, with strong versus weak models.

2. Sustainable development and its limits

   The Brundtland definition, ecosystem collapse from overuse, and why GDP can mislead.

3. Environmental justice and scale

   The right to a clean environment and fair access, how inequality drives disparities, and the operating scales involved.

4. Measuring sustainability: indicators and footprints

   Sustainability indicators, ecological, carbon and water footprints, biocapacity and citizen science.

5. Sustainability frameworks and models

   The SDGs, planetary boundaries, doughnut economics and the circular economy, each with uses and limitations.

6. HL: quantifying planetary boundaries

   Using quantitative data on control variables to judge when and if a planetary boundary has been crossed.