Why write about sustainability in bachelor’s and master’s theses?

Sustainability is often either forgotten or only mentioned briefly, without deeper reflection or connection to the topic. To help increase focus on this, we want to highlight that writing about sustainability not only demonstrates the ability to think critically—thereby raising the quality of the master’s thesis—but also provides an advantage in the job market, where sustainability is becoming an increasingly important issue.

To make it easier to integrate sustainability into master’s theses, it is crucial to gain a deeper understanding of what sustainability entails, as well as to use models like SusAF (Sustainability Awareness Framework) to structure the analysis.

What do the course descriptions for master's theses say?

The course description for, among others, master's theses in Computer Science and Informatics emphasizes reflection on the theses’ relevance to sustainable development, where students are to assess how the thesis relates to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

We can also see similar elements in the master thesis description for Digital Transformation:

Another criterion examiners look for is a critical evaluation of one’s own work, which is why it is encouraged to include sustainability in the thesis. Both the Computer Science and Informatics master’s programs emphasize the need to “(...) critically evaluate the work and its contribution.” (Figure 1). In the course description for the master's in Digital Transformation, it states that students should “Demonstrate a research-ethical and sound critical attitude towards research work.” If a student develops a technological solution without considering its sustainable consequences, the work has not been fully critically assessed. Ignoring sustainability also means overlooking important aspects such as resource use, environmental impact, social responsibility, and economic sustainability. Therefore, it is vital to reflect on how the solution affects society and the environment, which in turn strengthens the quality and relevance of the thesis.

Figure 1: The requirements for academic content in the master’s thesis for Informatics and Computer Science specify that one must “critically evaluate the work and its contribution.”

Theses where sustainability relevance is not critically evaluated

In the figure below, there is an example of an excerpt from a master’s thesis. The thesis is connected to sustainability by mentioning the UN Sustainable Development Goals, but it does not explain how the thesis actively supports sustainable development. It is only stated that the thesis is relevant to Sustainable Development Goal 13, without explaining why this is relevant. If this paragraph constitutes the entire discussion of sustainability in the thesis, the candidate has not demonstrated an ability for critical evaluation of sustainability.

Figure 2: Here is an example from a master’s thesis.

Using a tool for simple sustainability analysis, such as SusAF, could have helped the student identify and analyze the various sustainability aspects.

Theses that demonstrate a strong ability to think critically about sustainability

From previous master’s theses, certain common traits can be observed that characterize good integration of sustainability. They demonstrate the ability to think critically about sustainability when the thesis:

• Describes how the project can affect sustainability both directly and indirectly.
• Addresses challenges that may arise from sustainable solutions.

• Not only mentions the Sustainable Development Goals and the various dimensions of sustainability, but also reflects on them.

How to conduct a critical evaluation/analysis of sustainability in your thesis

To integrate sustainability assessments into bachelor’s and master’s theses, it is advisable to start early in the semester. This provides sufficient time to explore and evaluate the various sustainability impacts of the solution being developed or analyzed, ideally in collaboration with the project sponsor. As a tool for structuring a sustainability analysis, we have chosen to focus on a simplified version of the SusAF framework. There are also other frameworks that work well, but we have chosen to focus on this one. We recommend the following steps for using SusAF effectively:

Here are some simple points about what the framework is about:

1. Familiarize yourself with the framework
    
   • Get to know the four dimensions of sustainability in the framework: human (social + individual), environmental, economic, and technical sustainability.
      

   • Understand the different levels of sustainability impacts: Immediate, enabling, and structural.

2. Identify sustainability impacts related to the solution in your thesis
    
   • Use guiding questions from SusAF to identify potential impacts in each dimension.
      
   • Consider both positive and negative consequences.
      
   • Identify potential links between impacts, i.e., where one impact could lead to another.
      
3. Document assumptions
    
   • You will likely need to make a number of assumptions in order to predict the sustainability impacts.
      
   • Note which prerequisites and assumptions your analysis is based on.
      
4. Present the analysis in a table and/or figure format
    

5. Discuss and evaluate your findings.

For a more detailed guide on using the SusAF framework, we refer to SusAF Taster, which explains which questions to ask and how to proceed. The document also presents five dimensions of sustainability, whereas we have chosen to simplify the model somewhat by combining “Social” and “Individual.”

Once you have identified the sustainability impacts, you can organize them in a table and/or figure to get a clear overview of how they affect each other. Below is the template and an example from a technical solution illustrating what this might look like:

Click here for more examples of sustainability analyses for Bachelor’s/Master’s theses

Don’t forget to consult your supervisor!

Your critical evaluation of the thesis with regard to sustainability is something the examiner will pay close attention to. Therefore, it is wise to consult with your supervisor to receive useful feedback on your analysis and reflections on sustainability.