“The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to originate anything….Its province is to assist us in making available what we are already acquainted with.”
Ada Lovelace

SWOT’s Your Resolution for the planet?

It’s a brand New Year and here in the UK, like many countries, New Year brings new aspirations and resolutions. These tend to have a strong self-improvement theme and range from the trivial to game changing – at least some people like to think so.

We thought it would be interesting to focus upon resolution for a sustainable future, and rather than just jumping on the latest trendy bandwagons or buzzwords, take stock of the state we are in before planning for the future.

As we claim to be evidence based sustainability experts here at Terrafiniti HQ, we really need some sort of management tool (however simple) to help us focus on what is really important.

We thought we’d go very strategic and take a planetary approach, so here’s our SWOT on Earth for 2014.

Of course it’s difficult to force sustainability issues into boxes so you will find some things feature more than once – it’s an interconnected world out there!

Questions to consider

• What would you add to the above?
• What would you remove?
• How can we move more entries from the right to the left, from the bad to the good?
• How might this analysis have changed compared to 50 years ago and how might it be different in 50 years?
• What are your New Year Sustainability Resolutions?

That which does not kill you makes you stronger

Of course, such a simplistic analysis can never contain the fantastic and sometimes bewildering complexity of life on our planet, nor map all of its facets.

The fact remains, however, that many of the issues in our SWOT present both a negative and positive face for the planet’s future.

As ever, we have in our grasp either the means to make or to undo a sustainable future.