Library | ESG issues

Systems Thinking

Systems thinking is a holistic approach to problem-solving that focuses on how different parts of a system interact and influence each other over time. It helps leaders see beyond individual components like departments, markets, or financial statements to understand the broader dynamics, feedback loops, and long-term impacts of decisions. This perspective improves risk management, strategic planning, and operational efficiency by recognising interconnected relationships rather than isolated events.

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Investor influence in private markets: How investors activities can result in changes in outcomes for people and or the natural environment

The Predistribution Initiative
This report examines how private market investors influence social and environmental outcomes through investment decisions and firm-level actions. It proposes a framework to assess pathways, outcomes and causality, supporting impact management beyond portfolio company effects.
Research
10 September 2024

Investing in tomorrow: A guide to building climate-resilient investment portfolios

Investment Leaders Group
This guide outlines how investors can integrate physical climate risks into listed equity and debt portfolios, strengthen portfolio resilience, and mobilise capital for adaptation through asset allocation, due diligence, engagement, and collaboration across policy, finance and the real economy.
Research
15 January 2025

Our predicament: The fundamental flaws of predominant economic systems - and the cultures scaffolding them

This report synthesises interviews with global thinkers to diagnose structural flaws in dominant economic systems. It argues that extractive capitalism, growth imperatives, inequality and ecological overshoot underpin a planetary predicament, and frames the challenge as navigation towards regenerative, responsibility-based economies rather than problem-solving.
Research
30 April 2025

Starting in and transitioning into sustainable finance careers

Finance relevance: Finance and Sustainability Professionals; Finance and Sustainability Students
This guide explores ways to get started in and transition into sustainable finance careers. It focuses on how professionals can build foundational knowledge, apply transferable skills, and take opportunities to create impact. Through expert insights it highlights strategies to navigate evolving roles and align finance with real sustainability outcomes.
Expert guide
19 December 2025

Integrating human rights due diligence (HRDD) in finance and investment

Finance relevance: Investment professionals
This guide provides practical steps for successful investor collaborations, helping investors navigate challenges, align on objectives and leverage collective influence. Drawing from expert insights and real-world case studies, it outlines effective governance, engagement strategies and resource management to drive measurable corporate and policy change through coordinated investor action.
Expert guide
7 December 2025

Redefining progress: Global lessons for an Australian approach to wellbeing

CDP
A scan of global wellbeing frameworks shows how countries integrate measurement, policymaking and accountability to support long-term social, economic and environmental outcomes. The report outlines lessons for designing an Australian approach that embeds wellbeing across government systems, decision-making and reporting.
Research
27 August 2022

A systems approach to sustainable finance: Actors, influence mechanisms, and potentially virtuous cycles of sustainability

This review examines how financial sector structures and actors influence sustainability outcomes through a systems lens. It identifies barriers such as inadequate metrics, poor risk integration, and limited understanding of complex dynamics, while highlighting collaboration opportunities between finance and science to align capital flows with long-term ecological resilience.
Research
18 July 2025

Sustainable development report 2025

Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)
The Sustainable Development Report is a benchmark series that tracks global and national progress toward achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Produced annually by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and partners, it presents the SDG Index and Dashboards, offering comparable data, analysis, and trends for all UN member states.
Benchmark/series
26 June 2025

How the concept of “Regenerative Good Growth” could help increase public and policy engagement and speed transitions to Net Zero and nature recovery

MDPI
The report introduces the concept of Regenerative Good Growth (RGG) as an alternative to extractive GDP-focused models. It argues that economic progress should regenerate five renewable capitals, natural, social, human, cultural, and sustainable physical, while ensuring fairness, engagement, and reduced environmental harm. RGG promotes inclusive, low-carbon, and nature-positive transitions through diverse public participation.
Research
22 January 2025

Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries monitors a world out of balance

This report presents an updated “Doughnut” framework, tracking 35 social and ecological indicators from 2000–2022. Findings show only modest progress on reducing deprivation, while ecological overshoot has worsened, with wealthier nations driving most impacts. The study highlights stark inequalities and calls for regenerative, distributive economic approaches.
Research
1 October 2025

Unlocking the sustainable transition for agribusiness

United Nations Environment Programme
This report examines how entrenched political and market structures hinder agribusinesses from transitioning to sustainable models. It identifies three systemic “lock-ins” and outlines how policy reforms, financial incentives, and political commitment can unlock agribusiness potential to drive food system transformation at scale and pace.
Research
1 July 2025

Greenhouse gas protocol land sector and removals initiative: Project overview

World Resources Institute
The greenhouse gas protocol’s land sector and removals initiative aims to develop internationally accepted corporate guidance for accounting and reporting emissions and removals from land use, bioenergy, and carbon removal. It seeks to improve transparency, support target-setting, and align with climate goals through a multi-stakeholder, science-based process.
Research
18 October 2024

The GHG protocol for project accounting

World Resources Institute
This report outlines standards and procedures for quantifying and reporting greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions from mitigation projects. It provides a framework to estimate baseline emissions, assess additionality, and apply consistent accounting principles. The guide supports transparency, credibility, and harmonisation across project-based GHG initiatives.
Research
6 December 2005

Corporate value chain (scope 3) accounting and reporting standard: Supplement to the GHG protocol corporate accounting and reporting standard

World Resources Institute
The Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard provides a consistent framework for measuring and reporting indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across a company’s value chain. It outlines 15 categories of Scope 3 emissions, offers guidance on boundary setting, data collection, and reporting, and aims to improve transparency, enable emissions reduction, and support strategic decision-making.
Research
16 April 2013

Opportunities for methane mitigation in agriculture: Technological, economic, and regulatory considerations

World Resources Institute
This report assesses cost-effective methods to reduce methane emissions from enteric fermentation, manure management, and rice cultivation. It outlines region-specific strategies and underscores the need for research, regulatory frameworks, and cross-sector collaboration to support implementation and scale-up of mitigation solutions.
Research
5 March 2025

Green and intelligent: the role of AI in the climate transition

Artificial intelligence (AI) can support the climate transition by reducing global emissions by up to 5.4 GtCO₂e annually by 2035 in the power, food, and transport sectors, surpassing its own energy footprint. Strategic government action is essential to ensure AI accelerates low-carbon solutions equitably and effectively.
Research
16 June 2025
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