This paper contributes to the development of a problem-structuring method for exploring sustainability opportunities in systems. It presents a case of designing the plane while flying it, using an action research methodology to develop the Sustainability Opportunity Study over a period of 2 years. The problem-structuring method was applied and developed in the context of a research and development network for improving sustainability of housing in East Africa through alternative binders in block-based building. The resulting method consists of the three main stages Diagnosing, Analysing, Solving, where activities are informed by critical systems thinking and insights derived from experience and reflections from the case. The method uses different types of workshops to derive specific project proposals for further implementation and realisation of the identified sustainability opportunities. Results also suggest four types of evaluation of the Sustainability Opportunity Study based on the main focus of the intervention: Focus on effectiveness (number of relevant project proposals), focus on creating shared understanding (perceived learning among participants), focus on ensuring fairness (level of engagement among marginalized stakeholders), or focus on commitment to Critical Systems Thinking (breadth and depth in Diagnosing, Analysing and Solving).

Purpose of the paper: Most countries are struggling with quality and sustainability problems. When studying suggested proposals, (Total) Quality Management is not clearly present. This raises the question: Is (T)QM relevant in solving current quality problems and in supporting sustainable development? The purpose of this paper is to study how (T)QM could support Sustainable Development and how Swedish sustainability potential could be assessed.

Methodology: Sweden, as a sustainability leader, is used as a case study. (T)QM in this paper is mainly based on ISO 9000 quality principles. The quality principle focus on customers is changed to focus on system needs.  The focus on systems enables identifying the system purpose while identifying various stakeholder needs. The Pareto principle is used to deal with conflicting stakeholder wants and needs. We use the Sustainability Opportunity Study (SOS) logic, with an emphasis on its Diagnosing component, in trying to Understand, Define and Measure what national sustainability could be. The approach is conceptual, and the results have been formulated in discussions with quality professionals. 

Main Findings: Results suggest that (T)QM could support sustainability through system sensemaking, based on the Pareto guided focus on system purpose. This is used to identify the right thing to focus on, in the studied system. The TQM inspired system-based change theory is called Quality for Sustainability (Q4S) and supports in doing the thing right. Swedish sustainability is defined as: "At least having satisfied citizens with their needs being provided while being carbon neutral and taking global responsibility for sustainability with focus on extreme poverty and peacekeeping." The potential for Swedish carbon reductions has been indicated as an example of how a complex system can be simplified to a measurable potential.

Practical implications:  Results provide a roadmap for understanding sustainability on a national level which could promote organisations, such as universities, in facilitating the necessary support with education, research, and societal cooperation.

Originality/value: The novelty is in applying the outside-in perspective based on a needs focus in combination with the Pareto principle of the vital few sustainability impacts at the national level.

The purpose in this paper is to do a Sustainability Opportunity Study (SOS) for Swedish cement and concrete production, while simultaneously improving the theoretical concept. There seems to be no agreed way of measuring organizational sustainability and sustainable development in common value chains, such as the building value chain. Without agreed definitions, agreed performance indicators are probably missing. Sustainability indicators can be proposed by doing an SOS, which identifies the main sustainability impacts in the studied value chain with focus on stakeholder needs. With proposed sustainability indicators, the improvement potential can be assessed. The SOS also identifies causes for the existing potential and proposes solutions. The starting point is the SOS matrix that combines the logic of Understanding-Defining-Measuring with the Opportunity Study steps of Diagnosing-Analysing-Solving. Results demonstrate that the SOS can be adapted to Swedish cement and concrete production resulting in proposed sustainability KPIs, identified main causes and proposed ways forwards.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe sustainability of hollow and solid blocks in sub-Saharan Africa.

Design/methodology/approach

Indicators of stakeholder value are proposed for measuring block sustainability based on comparisons of user building value price and carbon emissions. Block manufacturing processes in Tanzania and Uganda are described and assessed in this context.

Findings

The results from Uganda indicate that there are economic and environmental advantages in using hollow blocks as long as they are produced to statutory compliance levels. However, where blocks are not produced to standard requirements, the results indicate that it is better to use solid blocks. This surprising result seems to indicate that blocks prepared using low additions of cement might have sufficient functional quality for simple residential building applications even though they might not meet current standard strength requirements and have low cement productivity. These results also indicate that the improvement potential indicated previously cannot be realised when hollow blocks are used for simple construction needs.

Research limitations/implications

Clear benchmarks for the best practical level of cement block sustainability seem to be missing. The first reasons is that the lowest acceptable compressive strength has not been defined since standard requirements might not be relevant in the studied context. The second one is that the lowest possible practically achievable cement content with acceptable cement productivity has not been established.

Practical implications

Understanding sustainability can be very difficult and substantial work needs to be done to introduce operational sustainability indicators.

Originality/value

The results contribute to the discussion of understanding, defining and measuring sustainability.

Sustainable building should at least be affordable and carbon neutral. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is a region struggling with housing affordability. Residential buildings are often constructed using block-based materials. These are increasingly produced using ordinary Portland cement (PC), which has a high carbon footprint. Using alternative Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCMs) for block production might reduce the footprint and price. The purpose is to assess the level of information for SCM use in blocks in SSA and to use this information for Diagnosing the improvement potential as part of an Opportunity Study. Results from the scoping review show that aggregated information on SCMs and the quantities available is limited. Diagnosing the theoretical improvement potential in using cassava peel ash, rice husk ash, corn cob ash, volcanic ash and calcined clays, indicates that SCMs could represent a yearly value of approximately USD 400 million, which could be transferred from buying cement to local production. The use of SCMs could save 1.7 million tonnes of CO2 per year and create some 50,000 jobs. About 5% of the PC used for block production could be substituted, indicating that, in addition to using SCMs, other solutions are needed to secure production of sustainable blocks.

Purpose

A key issue to manage sustainability is to be able to operationalise it. Relevant indicators require an appropriate definition of sustainability and sustainable development for the studied organisation. A common problem is inadequate understanding of what sustainability is from an organisational perspective. The purpose of this paper is to propose how to understand, define and measure diagnosing of sustainability from an outside-in perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

The building, health care, education and tourism value chains are studied. Based on interpreted stakeholder sustainability needs the stages of understanding, defining and measuring of diagnosing are reviewed, and interpretations proposed. This is with focus on identifying the vital few sustainability impacts in the studied value chains.

Findings

The resulting definitions and proposed performance indicators for the chosen areas indicate that the approach works resulting in proposed definitions and indicators for sustainability and sustainable development based on stakeholders need focus. Having clear definitions and performance indicators will support working effectively with sustainable development.

Research limitations/implications

The resulting definitions and proposed performance indicators for the chosen areas indicate that the approach works. Further, proposed definitions and indicators for sustainability and sustainable development based on stakeholder needs focus is useful. Having clear definitions and performance indicators will help an organisation engage with sustainability and be sustainable within an organisational context.

Practical implications

The proposed approach enables using quality management for sustainable development.

Social implications

Social sustainability is viewed from a poverty and affordability perspective.

Originality/value

Results indicate that there is a value in using an outside-in approach with focus on stakeholder needs in connection with a process-based approach. The approach is in contrast with the customary way of defining sustainability which mostly is based on an inside-out approach identifying several indicators and then adding these to a measure of sustainability.

Purpose

Sustainability reports (SRs) could be viewed as organisational measurements of sustainability performance. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how well SRs are measuring and communicating sustainability and how reporting could be assessed and improved by presenting a maturity grid based on quality management principles.

Design/methodology/approach

Quality management students have assessed publicly available SRs. A total of 55 student assessments have been analysed by the author and used to indicate how understandable reports are. Quality management principles and input from the student assessments have been used to propose a maturity grid for sustainability reporting quality.

Findings

The indication is that SRs are not easy to interpret. The word sustainability aspect used should be replaced with impact on vital stakeholder needs. Guidelines for analysing reports could be improved by using process focus to clearly describe scope of reporting as the entire value chain.

Research limitations/implications

Results are limited to assessing how sustainability is measured. How sustainable the organisations are is not assessed. The research is ongoing, and the proposed matrix is preliminary needing validation and further modification.

Practical implications

The proposed maturity grid for sustainability reporting forms a good basis for further development of SRs and the critical review of them.

Social implications

Results indicate a need to report sustainability in the entire value chain and to focus more on vital stakeholder needs such as poverty and climate change.

Originality/value

The paper discusses a field of synergies between quality and sustainability management, which is important but still sparingly researched.

In spite of good coverage of sustainability and sustainable development both in scientific journals and other publications, humanity is on a steady unsustainable track consuming more than is produced. Understanding of change needs, does not seem to convert into sufficient change action. Sustainability issues are often complex, interdependent and hard to comprehend, indicating that sustainable development, in addition to change willingness, requires a holistic perspective. Seeing and understanding systems - systems thinking - is important. This implies that sense-making of systems and of sustainable development is important as a prerequisite for change. Possibilities of realising synergies between quality management and sustainable development are often discussed but do often not seem to be fully realised. This paper tests two system models from Quality Management in the context of sustainability in cement manufacturing and building material production. The indicative results suggest that the proposed system models are able to describe and identify improvement opportunities that could be used to create interest for change.

Purpose

Visualising change needs could be complex. One way of sense-making is to use process-based system models. Global warming requires major changes in many fields and especially for cement manufacturing, which represents a growing portion of man-made carbon emissions. The industry has proposed measures for change, but it is difficult to assess how good these are and more sense-making is needed to clarify the situation. The purpose of this paper is to visualise opportunities and threats for global cement manufacturing in the context of global warming, using a process-based system model.

Design/methodology/approach

Available data for cement manufacturing and for carbon emissions are combined both historically and as predictions based on chosen key performance indicators. These indicators are related to a chosen process-based system model.

Findings

The results indicate that the global cement industry does not have a viable plan to reduce carbon emissions sufficiently to comply with the objectives of maintaining global warming below 2°C. The application of the process-based system model indicates that it has the ability to visualise important opportunities and threats at the level of global processes.

Practical implications

The challenges of the world cement industry with reducing carbon emissions are highlighted. This information could be useful as a driver for change.

Originality/value

The paper provides insights into process-based improvement work related to cement industry carbon emissions.