The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted as reference and universal guidepost for transitioning to Sustainable Development by the United Nations in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, are intended to be used as a set of interconnected goals and global targets for ‘Transforming our world’, as the 2030 Agenda is titled. This is a far more challenging task than business as usual; it requires systems thinking for understanding the conditions that generate and propagate sustainability challenges, moving away from the reductionist and anthropocentric thinking that created them in the first place. Taking a systems approach to addressing these challenges has been gaining currency with academics and policymakers alike, and here we make the case for holistic, integrated, and interdisciplinary thinking that challenges assumptions and worldviews, crucially based on public participation and engagement, to create the enabling conditions for sustainability to emerge. System transformations require interconnected changes to technologies, social practices, business models, regulations and societal norms, an intentional process designed to fundamentally alter the components and structures that cause the system to behave in its current unsustainable ways, a paradigm shift enabling the transition to sustainability.

作为 2030 年可持续发展议程的一部分，联合国于 2015 年通过的可持续发展目标 (SDG) 作为向可持续发展过渡的参考和普遍指南，旨在用作一套相互关联的目标和全球目标“改变我们的世界”，正如 2030 年议程的标题。这是一项比一切照旧更具挑战性的任务；它需要系统思维来理解产生和传播可持续性挑战的条件，摆脱最初创造它们的还原论和以人类为中心的思维。采用系统方法来应对这些挑战已经在学术界和政策制定者中流行起来，在这里我们提出了整体、综合、以及挑战假设和世界观的跨学科思维，关键是基于公众参与和参与，为可持续发展创造有利条件。系统转型需要对技术、社会实践、商业模式、法规和社会规范进行相互关联的变革，这是一个有意的过程，旨在从根本上改变导致系统以当前不可持续方式运行的组件和结构，范式转变，实现向可持续发展的过渡。