Sustainability Competencies

Wals and Corcoran (2012) summarize some of the competencies considered key to the sustainability professional, including “thinking in a forward manner (anticipatory thinking), seeing relationships and interdependencies (systems thinking), the ability to put yourself in the mind of others, even other species, having different backgrounds or living elsewhere (empathic understanding and open-mindedness), utilizing diversity towards creativity, and coping with uncertainty” (Learning for Sustainability in Times of Accelerating Change, p. 24). Local sustainability strategist, Coro Strandberg has also compiled a list of five competencies that businesses will need for the future. Check out her article on systems thinking here.