Sustainability Knowledge

This is a temporary page that indicates the kind of coverage to be given to each sustainability topic. The content will be thoughtful, analytical and insightful, based on the years of experience of creating a reputation for our expertise in the field of knowledge management. Several types of content are currently planned:

Insights

These are short briefings that will typically comprise:

The issue - what is the scope of this topic
The knowledge - what we know / don't know about this issue, including trends
Opportunities and threats - what will the likely impact be on countries, businesses and individuals
Strategies - mitigation and adaptation strategies
Best practice - examples and case studies from around the world
Resources - links to articles, websites and organisations

Essentials

The basic concepts of sustainability at all levels - individuals, communities, organizations, nations and international. The content will include (but will not be limited to):

Definitions - both those widely accepted and our own with interpretation
Core concepts - including frameworks and models, with an emphasis on systems and cycles
State of knowledge - relating sustainability knowledge to knowledge and information management approaches
FAQs - some commonly asked questions about sustainability, and the best answers to date
Pathfinders - roadmaps to sustainability (and through this website) for different audiences - managers, policy makers, students and consultants
The Lighter Side - some thought provoking trivia and perhaps the occasional quiz.

K-Bytes (Knowledge Bites)

Shorter pieces in the form of:

Blog entries - such as that on our KM site "Where's the Oil?"
Articles - slightly longer pieces, giving more coverage to a specific area
Possibilities - a look behind some of the trends and various scenarios
Perspectives - looking at situations and strategies from different stakeholder viewpoints
Provocations - challenging the status quo or orthodoxy on certain issues
Positions - where we stand on certain issues, and where this fits in the spectrum of scientific and popular opinion
Practicalities - short introductions to strategies and techniques that are being deployed (some will be enlarged into our SK-Guides - see below)
Innovations - highlighting some leading edge examples of new products, services, process, systems and other innovations

SK-Guides (Sustainability Know-How)

These are more in-depth guides (20-30 pages) on particular strategies and techniques. Most will be sold online for 10- 20. Typical coverage is:

Background - the scope of the guide, how it should be used
Benefits - why action is needed; what are the typical outcomes
Step-by-Step - practical aspects of introducing a the technique or strategy
Guidelines and pitfalls - some dos and don'ts from the knowledge of experience
Case studies - examples of best practice from around the world
Resources - for further in-depth reading on the subject

Resources

As I myself will access a vast wealth of external sources, I shall evaluate them, sort out the wheat from the chaff and provide information in various categories:

Websites - a large number of websites cover our subject areas, but many are from singe pesepectives or activites groups
Books - we shall provide short summaries, and for some (and for a price) some more detailed synopses
Organisations - information about the main professional, industry and other organisations (such as think tanks) and their positions
Networks - as a powerful agent of change we shall highlight those networks, including community projects, that are making a difference
Blogs - a selection of the more authoritative and influential (not always the same!) blogs

Rather than simply generating lists my approach is one of annotation - reviewing and commenting on their contribution to improving our knowledge about sustainability.

Other Plans

You'll note from the above how ambitious the plans are. So, overall this is a multi-year project (it took over 5 years to develop our susbstantive content, including two 500-page publications) in the field of knwoledge management - so please don't expect too much, too soon! Our general plans include:

Taxonomic tagging - as we move to a database driven site, we shall classify the content into various categories
Search - include a site wide search
Online shopping - ability to order, pay and fulfil orders for our publications online

Some of these facilities were available on my old KM website, but used what is now obsolete technology. It will take some time to reintroduce them here.

My first priority is to create a viable set of core content, so please bear with me while this is created during the summer of 2011.

As always, I would be very pleased to hear from you (Email: david@skyrme.com and include Sustainability in your Subject) about what would make this sustainability knowledge website a practical and useful resource in your own sustainability efforts.

David Skyrme
May 2011