Learning for Sustainability is organised as a set of connected hubs for people working in complex, multi-actor settings. Questions in these settings rarely fit neatly into one discipline, method or role, so the site is designed to support movement between related ideas, tools and examples.
The site is grounded in social learning: how people learn together through dialogue, shared reflection and experience. That remains one of the underlying threads across the site. Over time, the language of practice has broadened, and many people now arrive through related interests such as systems thinking, collaboration, evaluation, Theory of Change, climate adaptation, indicators, co-design or reflective practice.
Rather than offering a single pathway, the site provides several overlapping entry points. Some people arrive looking for practical tools. Others are looking for conceptual grounding, reflective insights, or examples drawn from practice. The structure is intended to help people start where they are, then follow links across related areas as their questions develop.
The resources included on Learning for Sustainability are selected because I have found them useful, thought-provoking, practical, or relevant to the themes covered on the page. Inclusion does not imply formal endorsement, ranking, or comprehensive coverage of a field. The site is best understood as a curated learning resource, shaped by my own practice and ongoing reading, rather than as a systematic review or directory of all available material.
The site began as the structure for my PhD research and has grown over more than two decades into a working manual and shared reference. It brings together curated and annotated links to open-access resources, alongside my own reflections and frameworks, with a focus on sustainability, environmental management, governance, health and other settings where collaboration, learning and adaptation matter.
Index hubs
At the top level, the site is organised around a small set of index hubs. These are the main navigation areas in the top menu. They provide broad entry points into related resources, tools and reflections across key areas of practice.
The first four hubs align with the main practice areas highlighted on the front page. Applied research provides an additional entry point for research-related resources and reflections.
- Social learning
Focuses on how individuals, groups, and organisations learn together through shared reflection, dialogue and experience, particularly in complex and contested contexts. - Managing collaborations
Brings together guidance on designing and supporting multi-actor processes, partnerships, facilitation, and participation across institutional, sectoral and cultural boundaries. - Supporting change
Covers approaches to change processes, including strategy, facilitation, behaviour and practice change, systemic co-design, climate adaptation and governance in dynamic settings. - Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL)
Focuses on learning-oriented and complexity-aware approaches to evaluation, indicators, theory of change, and reflective use of evidence to support adaptation over time. - Applied research
Highlights participatory, interdisciplinary, and practice-based research approaches that sit between academia and real-world decision-making, including ethics, Indigenous knowledge lenses, and the use of AI in research practice.
Together, these index hubs provide orientation and help users move laterally across the site, depending on the questions they are working with.
Topic hubs
Alongside the index hubs, the site includes a growing set of topic hubs. These explore specific practice lenses in more depth and often cut across multiple index hubs.
- Human ethics for independent research and evaluation
For questions about ethical judgement, responsibility, and care in applied work, particularly where no formal institutional ethics process is available. - Systems thinking and complexity-aware approaches
For understanding relationships, interconnections, and patterns across complex social and environmental systems, and for supporting more joined-up responses. - Indicators and metrics
For developing and using indicators in complex, collaborative settings, connecting what is measured to system understanding, shared judgement, and the decisions that matter.. - Climate adaptation
For working with adaptation as an ongoing social and institutional practice that links technical measures with learning, governance, and collaboration. - Reflective and reflexive practice
For building habits and spaces that help individuals and teams notice what is changing, question assumptions, and adapt their practice. - Behaviour change
For understanding and influencing how practices shift over time, linking individual behaviour with social, organisational, and system contexts. - Theory of Change
For clarifying how change is expected to happen, making assumptions explicit, and linking activities, outcomes, learning, and adaptation over time. - Working with generative AI
For using generative AI as a practical support for thinking, writing, analysis, and facilitation, with attention to ethics, judgement, and responsible use in applied work.
Topic hubs are designed to be used in combination rather than in isolation, reflecting the layered nature of real-world work.
Reflections and practice writing
Running across the site is a long-standing body of reflective writing. These blog posts draw on lived experience in facilitation, evaluation, and systems work and often connect ideas across different parts of the site.
The reflections are not tied to a single hub. Each post is grounded in its own context, linking to relevant areas such as ethics, learning, collaboration, place-based practice, and institutional context. Together, they offer practical insights into how these areas interact across time and space.
Using the site
Start with the question you are holding, then follow links across related hubs as new questions arise. You might begin with systems thinking, then move into collaboration, evaluation, ethics or climate adaptation. Or you might start with a practical tool and follow the links back to the concepts that sit behind it.
This is intentional. Learning for Sustainability is designed as a working resource and shared reference, supporting exploration, adaptation and reflective practice rather than prescribing a single way of working.
If you’re finding this site useful, consider sharing it with others who might benefit too. You can also sign up for occasional site updates to hear about new tools, guides, and key resources.