Consider the challenge
When we talk about sustainability challenges, we talk about addressing complex, open, and real-world problems with no single solution. Sustainability challenges are often wicked problems—issues such as energy shortages, plastic pollution, fast fashion waste, or food insecurity—that involve trade-offs between environmental, social, and economic factors. They require systems thinking, stakeholder engagement, and ethical considerations, encouraging students to analyze unintended consequences and propose feasible yet impactful solutions. A well-framed challenge balances ambition with actionability, ensuring students develop sustainability competencies while tackling real-world issues.
Johanna Lönngren suggested 5 principles to define a wicked problem for educational settings in her dissertation "Wicked problems in Engineering Education" (2017) (pp. 41-43):
- Principle 1. Ensure that the problem can be understood and discussed from many different perspectives.
- Principle 2. Ensure that conflicting values and interests cannot be ignored.
- Principle 3. Define an achievable “result” that does not allow definite answers or solutions to the problems.
- Principle 4. Ensure that students can make a connection between the problem and their educational program
- Principle 5. Design problem-specific support for students
Johanna elaborates on each principle - we encourage you to read the mentioned section. Additionally, check our challenges template with examples: Formulating a Challenge.docx
Sustainability Challenges require plurality of perspectives and transdisciplinarity
Encourage students to engage with diverse viewpoints by conducting stakeholder analyses, applying systems thinking, reflective dialogues, peer exchanges, and participatory research, ensuring that students critically engage with multiple perspectives. Meaningful stakeholder involvement—not only through challenge ownership or agency, but through active participation, mentorship and co-creation of solutions— increases the impact of student projects.
- Explore an article by our colleagues, including researchers at TU/e: The role of academic and extra-academic actors in transdisciplinary challenge-based learning
- Check an article by our colleagues at UTwente: Multi-,inter-, and trans-disciplinarity in challenge-based engineering education
- Explore the definitions of multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinarity below: Utrecht University Transdisciplinary Field Guide definitions
