Envisioning Sustainability

Since my work at UC Davis, I've become very interested in exploring the intersection between the field of Sustainability and my work in Visual Recording/Visual Thinking. I'm curious about how we as individuals, communities, families, and organizations might envision Sustainability: What does Sustainability look like? How can it be mapped and charted? What needs do people have when they try to run their businesses and homes in more Sustainable ways? Said another way, are there visuals that could assist people as they strive to integrate the principles and practices of Sustainability into their lives and work? It's my belief that co-creating Visual Records, icons, maps and templates could serve as another tool to help Visual Thinkers align with the very complex and urgent need for action on the behalf of the environment. Visual Records can help people see both the practical day-to-day steps we can take as individuals, and see how to shift to or adopt a Systems Thinking view of Sustainability. I've started my exploration of envisioning Sustainability, so I wanted to share my first few images above. If you have ideas about how to visualize Sustainability, or know of books on this subject, or better yet, if you know people I could talk with about the alignment between Visuals & Sustainability, please get in touch!