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 Bachelor’s and Master’s theses, it is crucial to gain a deeper understanding of what sustainability entails, as well as to use relevant frameworks like SusAF (Sustainability Awareness Framework) to structure the analysis.

What do the course descriptions for Bachelor’s and Master’s theses say?

The course descriptions for Bachelor’s and Master’s thesis at IDI emphasize reflection on the theses’ relevance to sustainable development, where students are to assess how the thesis relates to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. For instance, the course descriptions for Master’s theses in Computer Science and Informatics phrase it the following way: 

Another example is the course description for the Master’s thesis in Digital Transformation, which says the following:

In assessing a thesis, the examiner will accordingly look for reflection on sustainability relevance.

Among the more general characteristics of a good Bachelor’s or Master’s thesis, is that the thesis contain a critical evaluation of one’s own work. For instance, both the Computer Science and Informatics Master’s programs emphasize the need to “(...) critically evaluate the work and its contribution.” (Textbox 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.” 

Critical evaluation of one’s own work implies seeing the work in a broader context, which includes a sustainability perspective. If a student develops a technological solution without considering its consequences for sustainability, this wil be a weakness of the work. 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.

Textbox 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.”

Critical evaluation of sustainability in a thesis: What is sufficient?

In Textbox 2, there is an example of an excerpt from a master’s thesis. The thesis is connected to sustainability by referring to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDTs).

Textbox 2: Example of how sustainability relevance has been addressed in a master’s thesis.

The reflection in Textbox 2 connects the thesis to the UN in accordance with the course description. However, it does not explain how the work actively supports sustainable development and why exactly SDG 13 is relevant. 

From previous master’s theses, certain common traits can be observed that characterize theses demonstrating critical reflection on sustainability:

• The thesis describes how the project can affect sustainability both directly and indirectly.
   
• The thesis discusses challenges that may arise from sustainable solutions, in other words sustainability dilemmas.
   

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

In the final phase of your project, reflection on sustainability can help you demonstrate ability to reflect critically on possible consequences of the work/solution presented in the thesis.

Generally it is beneficial, if possible, to integrate sustainability considerations in an early stage of a project. This gives time to explore and evaluate sustainability effects of the solution in collaboration with the project client. 

In what follows you will find some information about how you can proceed to systematically and critically evaluate sustainability in your thesis.

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

As a tool for structuring a sustainability analysis, whether it is conducted early or late in a project, we have chosen to focus on a simplified version of the SusAF framework. This is one of several similar frameworks found to work well for this purpose . The result of the sustainability analysis can be presented as a textual description in the thesis, possibly including a diagram and/or table. The tabular and diagram formats provide a good overview of identified sustainability effects and how they are interconnected. 

Photo: B.Krogstie/NTNU

Figure 1: Students conducting a sustainability analysis by use of a SusAF diagram
 

We recommend the following steps to make efficient use of SusAF:

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 effects.
      
   • Identify potential links between impacts, i.e., where one impact could lead to another.
      
   • If possible, work on a sustainability analysis diagram where sustainabiltiy effects are added as you identify them. This helps you get a holistic perspective.
      
3. Document assumptions
    
   • You will likely need to make a number of assumptions in order to predict the sustainability impacts. Make a note of the assumptions.
      
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 to identify sustainabilty effects and how to proceed. Please note that this document presents five dimensions of sustainability, whereas we have chosen to simplify the model somewhat by combining Social and Individual into Human/Menneskelig.

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:

Examples of sustainability analysis

Some examples of sustainability analysis by use of SusAF can be found here:

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

Relating your thesis to the UN SDGs

As IDI’s course descriptions for the Master’s or Bachelor’s theses ask you to relate the thesis to the UN Sustainabiltiy Development Goals, you may wonder if it is possible to «translate» the results of a SusAF-based sustainability analysis» to SDGs based on the location of the sustainability effects in thediagram.

The answer is: partially, but not completely. The so called Wedding cake model shows on a general level how UN SDGs are related to various aspects of sustainability (economic, social and environmental), This model can be useful to consider such connections on a coarse level. 

In a critical reflection on sustainability in a concrete case, however, it is necessary to go a bit more in detail. For each sustainability effect you have identified in a sustainability analysis you should consider what SDGs are relevant. Here, we recommend not only considering the 17 high-level SDGs but  also look into the more detailed subgoals/targets which make it more clear what the high-level goals are addressing.

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.

Your feedback is appreciated!

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