This section hopes to look to the future and develop ideas of what this looks like through a multidisciplinary environmental lens. This section has two concept maps: one that describes the pathway to a sustainable future, and another that shows a case study of how these ideas are already being utilized to work towards a sustainable future. Together, these show my hopes for the future of sustainability.

CM 6: Pathways to a Sustainable Future

This concept map is a representation of my beliefs of what the path to a sustainable future looks like. As discussed on the What is Sustainability? page, there are many different approaches to sustainability. This concept map is a deep dive into what I believe are the necessary values and actions to get to a world in which there are strong global connections and local focuses. These values begin in response to our increasing understanding of sustainability and the various concerns that many researchers have regarding unsustainable systems, like increasing understanding of the climate, public concern of global issues, etc. These new values, all of which interrelate, cause businesses, people, and institutions to work together and move toward sustainability goals. The most important ideas represented here are the values, the actors, and the actions. This map takes ideas from various disciplines and backgrounds to create an understanding of sustainability that is diverse and applicable. Heath and Heath (2010) looks at how change happens, and these ideas are incorporated throughout. Ideas about policy are worked into this map from Rosenbaum (1991). Various ideas from Clapp and Dauvergne (2011) are utilized, as well as the idea of moving towards a ‘flourishing’ world by Ehrenfeld (2014).  Some takeaways from this map are that we can approach a more sustainable world through new values, strong actions, but most importantly multiscalar interactions and engagement between people, institutions, and businesses.

Another component of this concept map is that it points to where a real case can fit into this representation of the future. On the top of this concept map, the lavender arrow illustrates that the case study (seen below) ties together institutionalist and social green values by focusing on the collaboration of institutions and people in rural Nepal to benefit those without power. This case study is a prime example of global connections helping to foster local resilience.

CM7: Case Study

Micro-Hydro Power to Rural Nepal

This concept map explores a specific case study of implementing micro-hydro power in rural Nepal. This map begins before 2003, with 30,000 people in Nepal who did not have access to electricity, as seen on the far left of this map. Values from various institutions and people led to collaboration and education, resource contribution, the implementation of MHVE (Micro-Hydro Village Electrification), and eventually impacts that benefitted the Nepali people, the institutions, and the world as a whole. A lot can be learned about this case study regarding sustainability and moving towards a better world. In the top left blue box, specific lessons are shared regarding what can be applied to future sustainability movements. On the bottom right, various pitfalls are expressed with solutions given in order to improve the areas where this case study fell short. This case study concept map implements various ideas from Clapp and Dauverge (2011), Raskin (2008), Heath and Heath (2010), and many others. It also incorporates scholarship regarding this specific case, from Shakya et al. (2015), Sovacool et al. (2011), and various sources from the United Nations Development Programme to represent the actors and actions that occurred in this project. Different perspectives on sustainability were utilized in order to fully develop the ideas in this concept map and best depict an example of a movement towards sustainability. As seen in CM6: Pathways to a Sustainable Future, I focus on institutions and people working together in order to move towards a globally connected, locally focused sustainable future. This case study in rural Nepal shows exactly that, all while empowering people with green technology. Overall, this map illustrates one example of sustainable practices working, and more than anything this demonstrates that it is possible to move towards a brighter future. Examples like these should inspire and motivate people everywhere to avoid fatalistic approaches towards sustainability and actively work towards a brighter vision of the future.