Leverage Points for Sustainability Transformation
PLACES TO INTERVENE IN A SYSTEM
(in increasing order of effectiveness)
- Constants, parameters, numbers (subsidies, taxes, standards).
- Regulating negative feedback loops.
- Driving positive feedback loops.
- Material flows and nodes of material intersection.
- Information flows.
- The rules of the system (incentives, punishments, constraints).
- The distribution of po
donellameadows.org • Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System
The systems analysis community has a lot of lore about leverage points. Those of us who were trained by the great Jay Forrester at MIT have all absorbed one of his favorite stories. “People know intuitively where leverage points are,” he says. “Time after time I’ve done an analysis of a company, and I’ve figured out a leverage point — in inventory
... See moredonellameadows.org • Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System
the first paper is out from our Leverage Points project [...] and lays out a conceptual framework and research agenda, all around the notion of “deep leverage points”