Informing Individual’s Actions through Strategic Planning for Sustainability

Sammanfattning: This thesis focuses on the effects of a strategic planning process for sustainability (SPPS) on individuals. Very little research has connected strategic planning and sustainability for individuals, while related research has focused on strategic planning in organizational contexts and psychological determinants of individual change related to the environment (e.g., environmental attitude and perceived personal threat). An SPPS, based on backcasting from scientific principles of sustainability and the ABCD Analysis, a generic strategic planning methodology utilized by The Natural Step, was adapted for individuals and introduced to eight people in Karlskrona, Sweden. The SPPS was delivered to each participant in three, two-hour sessions, facilitated by three researchers. The study: 1) measured participants’ ability to identify new actions that move towards sustainability; and 2) investigated what can be learned from applying the SPPS to individuals. Our research indicates that applying an SPPS can help individuals to identify additional actions that may move towards a principled definition of sustainability. Time for personal introspection within the structure of the SPPS appears to be a main value of the process.