Learning for Sustainability (LfS) is a long-running knowledge-sharing platform that supports collaboration, co-design, and learning for change in complex settings. It brings together frameworks, tools, and annotated links to open access resources from across sectors and regions, alongside my own reflections, insights, and papers.
Originally developed as the outline for my PhD dissertation, this site has always been more than a website – it’s my working manual, a public bookmarks bar I return to often and share freely. Its non-linear structure reflects the real-world connections across ideas, tools, and practice.
Now in its 20th year, LfS continues to grow as a trusted and well-used resource, with visitors from across sectors such as agriculture, environment, public health, education, and policy. While the design has evolved, the purpose remains the same: to support people navigating complexity with open, practical, and reflective resources.
Site history and reach
Learning for Sustainability was relaunched under its current name and domain in 2005, building on earlier work from the NRM-changelinks site I first developed in 1998. While tools and technologies have changed, the aim has stayed the same: to make practical, systems-based resources accessible to those working on real-world change.
The site has been through several major refreshes. A major technical and design refresh in 2025 improved the site’s navigation, content architecture and overall usability. In 2026, this was followed by a substantial revision of the main and secondary hub pages. These hubs now provide clearer entry points, practical starting pathways and fuller maps of related pages, curated and annotated links, and reflections from practice. This shift makes the site less like a static resource archive and more like a guided knowledge base that helps visitors find a useful place to start.
Over time, it has evolved into a trusted resource for professionals, researchers, and community groups working in complex and cross-sector settings.
Over time, the site has built a strong web presence and is linked from universities, research institutes, collaborative networks, courses and practitioner resources around the world. I often hear of it being used in workshops, teaching, programme design and self-directed learning, which reflects its role as a practical reference for people working across sustainability, evaluation, systems change, collaboration and applied research.
I continue to curate and maintain the site as part of my own reflective practice. If it’s helpful to you or your work, I’m glad – it was built to be shared. Whether you’re exploring it for a specific tool or simply browsing for insight, I hope it offers something useful for your own journey in systems-focused work.
Design and usability
Alongside its growing reach, attention has also gone into the site’s design and usability – ensuring that the structure and presentation make it easier for people to navigate and engage with the resources. The aim has been to create a site that feels approachable, even when dealing with dense or technical material, and that works equally well for a quick visit or a deeper exploration. Good design in this context is less about visual flash and more about supporting focus, readability, and flow.
This latest refresh also modernised the site’s technical foundations. Running on faster servers and using a modern Elementor framework, the site now offers improved performance, stability, and flexibility across devices – making it easier for visitors to access and use the resources.
The 2025 refresh was not only about restructuring content and navigation, but also about improving the reading experience. Because Learning for Sustainability is text-heavy by nature, it needed a design that would remain comfortable across long pages and varied devices. Small details matter – for example, the shift to Manrope as the main site font. Its clarity, open spacing, and geometric curves give the site an airy rhythm, making dense material lighter and more inviting. Choices like these reflect the broader aim of keeping the site practical, accessible, and reflective – a knowledge hub that supports people working in complexity.
Site context
Everything has been said about development, but almost everything remains to be said and therefore to be explored or rediscovered, because incontestably, almost everything remains to be done. (Cosmao. 1984 p. 81*)
This site is intended as a practical resource for those involved in multi-stakeholder learning and change processes. It reflects the understanding that social learning is not an endpoint, but an ongoing process – shaped by well-managed relationships and meaningful spaces for dialogue across diverse groups. In this context, empowerment and social learning are mutually reinforcing: empowerment involves building the capacity of individuals and groups to make informed choices and act on them in ways that align with their aspirations.
Successful development is often said to require genuine collaboration between communities, practitioners, policymakers, and scientists. Yet while awareness of this need has grown, achieving effective collaboration in practice, and sharing insights across sectors, remains a significant challenge.
Despite progress in areas such as stakeholder engagement and co-design, much valuable work still goes undocumented or is difficult to access. Social scientists and change practitioners have long explored these issues, but insights from participatory research are not always integrated into day-to-day practice. At the same time, the growing volume of literature makes it harder for even committed practitioners to find the most relevant or useful resources – particularly when working under time or funding constraints.
Many constructive initiatives in this space have been led by individuals – environmental managers, community organisers, facilitators, agency staff, and others – responding to real-world problems in creative and locally grounded ways. Yet the lessons from these efforts are too often siloed, under-recognised, or lost.
Another ongoing challenge lies in the breadth of skills and knowledge required by those working to support change. Collaboration in complex systems calls not only for subject matter expertise (in areas like agriculture, biodiversity, or health), but also for capabilities in facilitation, information sharing, relationship building, and conflict resolution.
The original NRM-changelinks site, launched in 1998, focused on community participation and engagement within natural resource management. The current Learning for Sustainability site builds on that legacy, broadening its scope to reflect the wider relevance of these approaches. The tools and frameworks shared here are now used by those working across many sectors – including sustainable agriculture, climate resilience, biodiversity, public health, housing, and education.
What remains constant is a commitment to curating and sharing resources that support collaborative, inclusive, and adaptive approaches to change. As the site marks 20 years of this work, it continues to serve those navigating complexity – offering quiet support for reflection, shared learning, and purposeful action.
Acknowledgements
I’d like to acknowledge the support I’ve received from many people and organisations over the years – particularly during the early development of this site. These include Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research NZ, the Institute of Development Studies, and the Natural Resource Management Programme at Massey University, as well as my family and close colleagues. Thanks to Karen Scott for the original design and CSS development work, and to all those who have contributed by suggesting links to papers and resources. This ongoing support has helped shape the site as a shared resource for a wider global community of practice.
All material here is freely available for use – please acknowledge the source where appropriate. The views expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of any supporting organisations, groups, or individuals. For more on the context in which this site has developed – and the work and perspectives that have shaped it – you’re welcome to visit my home page.
Site reach and evolution
Now in its 20th year, Learning for Sustainability continues to serve as a widely used resource for professionals, researchers, and community groups working in complex, cross-sector settings.
The site also maintains a solid web presence, with an Ahrefs Domain Rating of 47, more than 43,000 backlinks, and links from over 660 referring websites – including academic institutions, professional networks, and collaborative platforms in sustainability, evaluation, and systems change. These signals reflect the site’s role as a widely used reference – shared in workshops, courses, and programmes around the world.
The site was first launched in 1998 as part of my PhD studies and was initially known as NRM-changelinks. In 2005–2006, the NRM-changelinks name was retired and the site was relaunched under the current Learning for Sustainability name and domain. Since then, it has gone through a number of significant design and content updates – including full WordPress redevelopments in 2014 and 2020, and most recently the major 2025 refresh supported by an Elementor-based design.
For those interested in the site’s history, you can explore archived versions here:
- One of the earliest versions (1999) – hosted on the Massey University server.
- A later version (April 2006) – from the final days of NRM-changelinks
- An early Learning for Sustainability version (April 2008) site – showing the early CSS layout, colours, and structure.
- The site was once awarded five stars by the Argus Clearinghouse in the sustainable development category – a nice bit of web history, also archived here.
[* Vincent Cosmao (1984) Un Monde en développement, guide de réflexion, Paris, Editions de l’Atelier.]