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.