Mainstreaming environmental sustainability through systems-based thinking

DR. CHARLOTTE KENDRA GOTANGCO GONZALES earned her doctoral degree in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences from Purdue University in 2011. She is an associate professor at the Department of Environmental Science, and the current director of the Ateneo Institute of Sustainability (AIS). AIS serves as Ateneo's hub for sustainable development, engaged in research, environmental education, and raising awareness of environmental issues.

Gotangco Gonzales is also part of the Human Environment and Dynamics research group of AIS. She specializes in the study of complex interactions between natural systems and human activity. Their research group, she explains, “employs systems thinking and industrial technology techniques to look at topics that intersect the natural sciences and the social sciences.” 

While specialization is important in addressing climate change, she believes that they would eventually require a “big picture” perspective as challenges become more complex. “I think there is also room for people who can think across specializations, across disciplines and across sectors to see how they can connect, and how we might leverage those connections to come up with new perspectives or paradigms and ways to address more complex socio-ecological problems,” she goes on to say.

The goal, Gotangco Gonzales says, is for “sustainable alternatives to become the mainstream, not the alternative.”

Some of AIS’ research might be specific to Ateneo, but they have yielded important insights that can also be applied externally. One example is applying system dynamics modeling and material flow analysis of rice waste in the Ateneo campus. Their study produced new insights on food waste. “Most people think the waste is downstream but we have discovered that there are upstream sources of that waste,” she says, such as surplus of cooked rice in the cafeteria. Gotangco Gonzales hopes that their research will be replicated elsewhere given food waste’s implications for food security. Another project they are developing with students is accounting Ateneo’s carbon footprint, which Gotangco Gonzales hopes to serve as a model for other institutions.

One of the biggest challenges, however, in her field is creating dynamic models specific to the needs of their stakeholders. “We are building these ourselves and we are looking at the data that are available to us to help understand the system as much as possible, because most of the time these models are not a one-size-fits-all;they need to be adapted and contextualized to their specific situation.”

From her experience, creativity and critical thinking are both key in the process of innovation. Ateneo has provided her with a space that fosters both, as well as the necessary connections to make their work truly enabling and engaging in view of today’s challenges. 

To know more about the Ateneo Institute of Sustainability’ research, visit ateneo.edu/ais/research.