Systems Thinking for a Sustainability Mindset Across Business Disciplines

Dr. Marco Tavanti
Professor of Leadership
MNA Program Director
School of Management
University of San Francisco

This chapter explores the crucial role of systems thinking in business management education to promote sustainability and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It begins by addressing the “why,” emphasizing the limitations of linear thinking in tackling complex, interconnected sustainability challenges. It then defines “what” systems thinking encompasses, focusing on its key characteristics and competencies. Practical strategies illustrate “how” systems thinking can be incorporated into curricula through course redesigns, learning activities, and assessment methods. Lastly, it identifies “who” among stakeholders, including administrators, faculty, students, alumni, and community partners, holds responsibility for embedding systems thinking into educational programmes.

Published in The Elgar Companion to Management Education and the Sustainable Development Goals, the chapter is part of an open access publication connected to the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative, which advances sustainability and responsible leadership in higher education worldwide.

This collaborative approach equips future leaders with the skills and mindset to confront climate change, poverty, and equity challenges. By moving beyond profit-oriented outcomes, systems thinking supports the development of resilient leaders capable of driving sustainable change in an increasingly interconnected world.

Dr. Tavanti also recently published We Are Francesco: The Seven Humanistic Leadership Lessons of Saint Francis of Assisi (2026), which explores values-based leadership through the life and teachings of Saint Francis. Released during the 800th anniversary year of Francis’s death, the book examines themes of humility, compassion, sustainability, peacebuilding, and service to the common good through a contemporary leadership lens.

Dr. Marco Tavanti is a sustainability and leadership international scholar whose experience stretches over 30 years and whose work has taken him to more than 18 countries in Europe, East Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Dr. Tavanti’s teaching in sustainable development, leadership ethics, intercultural diversity, and NGO management is grounded in Jesuit values and his scholarship is an embodiment of the University’s mission to be of service to humankind.

Dr. Tavanti is a systems thinker whose scholarship aims at providing practical and integrated solutions to issues in international development and poverty reduction. His research methods are participatory in nature and directed at building international capacity in leaders, organizations, and institutions. Through his teaching he inspires globally engaged leaders while building professional capacity through international managerial skills across sectors.

He is President of the Sustainable Capacity International Institute (SCII-ONLUS) and CEO of its subsidiary SDG.services. He is co-founder of the World Engagement Institute (WEI), an international organization providing capacity development services for sustainable human security. He designed and directed various professional training programs on sustainable community development, indigenous human rights, anti-human trafficking and refugee service management. He has been consulting and collaborating with United Nations agencies such as the Development Programme (UNDP), the Global Compact (UNGC), the Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). Through his engagement with the UN Global Compact he contributed to the development of the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).