Systems Thinking and Sustainability
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Chemistry International
October-December 2021
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Chemistry Education
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STCS 2030+ builds on and extends outcomes from the recently completed IUPAC Systems Thinking in Chemistry Education (STICE) project [5], which examined the potential benefits of incorporating systems thinking (ST) into chemistry education and ways to support chemistry educators in using ST. Systems thinking uses a variety of tools and cognitive frameworks to enhance our understanding of complex behaviors and phenomena from a holistic perspective. One of the main drivers behind the STICE project included recognition that, while ST has been has been identified as one of the core competences necessary to achieve sustainability [6] and has been extensively adopted in some other disciplines, including
IYBSSD 2022
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3-year IUPAC project Systems Thinking in Chemistry for Sustainability: Toward 2030 and Beyond (STCS 2030+, IUPAC Project #2020014-3-050) [1] launched in late 2020 is breaking important new ground in addressing chemistry’s orientations, roles, and responsibilities in the 21st Century and helping to map out implications for chemistry education, research, and practice. In taking on this ambitious task, STCS 2030+ draws on expertise available within IUPAC’s own structures, as a project co-sponsored by three IUPAC standing committees: the Committee on Chemistry Education (CCE), the Committee on Chemistry and Industry (COCI) and the Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development (ICGCSD). The project is also working with other organizations, such as the International Organization for Chemical Sciences in Development (IOCD), which is a co-supporter, and involves collaborators with individuals from organizations that include the Stockholm Resilience Centre [2], the American Chemical Society (ACS) Green Chemistry Institute [3], the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development (IYBSSD 202223) [4], and chemistry educators and chemical industry from around the world.
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by Peter Mahaffy, Stephen Matlin, Marietjie Potgieter, Bipul Saha, Aurelia Visa, Sarah Cornell, Felix Ho, Vicente Talanquer, Jane Wissinger and Vania Zuin
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Converging on chemistry’s role in the 21st Century
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UN SDGs
Planetary Boundaries
Figure 1: Integrating Sustainability into Learning in Chemistry—the visual representation of Working Group 1 editorial in the Journal of Chemical Education.
biology, engineering, and earth and environmental sciences, virtually no attention has been given to the use of ST in chemistry education. Potential benefits to using ST approaches in chemistry education include (a) enhancing students’ knowledge, skills, and values in chemistry through a focus on the interconnections between different chemical phenomena; (b) improving students’ knowledge of the influence of chemistry on planetary and societal issues; and (c) preparing students to make informed decisions and to address the complex global challenges of the 21st Century [7]. An important catalyst for the IUPAC ST projects was a proposal by a group at the International Organization for Chemical Sciences in Development (IOCD) that ST should be key to re-imagining chemistry in the 21st Century and optimizing chemistry’s contributions to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [8]. The STICE project catalyzed considerable global momentum, with wide dissemination at national and international conferences, publication in Nature journals, 43 contributed papers to the December 2019 special issue of the Journal of Chemical Education [9] and a feature cover story in the February 3, 2020 issue of Chemical & Engineering News [10]. Aims of the STCS 2030+ project are three-fold: (a) to highlight and strengthen the centrality of chemistry as a sustainability science through chemistry
