**Edward J. Garrity**

Richard J. Wehle School of Business, Canisius College, Buffalo, NY 14208, USA; garrity@canisius.edu; Tel.: +1-716-888-2267

Received: 1 March 2018; Accepted: 3 May 2018; Published: 8 May 2018

**Abstract:** Sustainability and climate change are massive global problems that stem from the industrial world's relentless pursuit of growth. Transitioning to a sustainable world requires understanding citizen mental models and our addiction to short-term rewards. This paper uses causal loop diagramming (CLD) to describe the general, prevailing citizen viewpoint and to propose a wider mental model that takes the natural world and sustainability into account. The corporate profit model that depicts the wider view acknowledges and describes the important impacts and influences of political pressure on our social, economic, and ecological systems. Adopting the wider mental model can help the industrialized world design better policy to achieve both national and United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals.

**Keywords:** sustainability; systems thinking; UN sustainable development goals; mental models; neoliberalism; ecological economics

#### **1. Introduction: The Nature of the Sustainability Problem**

In 1972, a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed a world (computer) model and published a report to the Club of Rome, titled the "Limits to Growth" [1]. The report linked the world economic system with the state of our natural world. The main message from the report is that economic growth and material consumption cannot continue infinitely on a finite planet.

The world model was initially heavily criticized since it conflicted with the growth mindset and predominant worldview. A number of criticisms falsely claimed that the model predicted resource depletion and world collapse by the end of the 20th century. "Limits to Growth" did not make that claim. However, a recent empirical study did find that actual data very closely follow the "standard run" scenario of the world model and that we are in fact on an unsustainable trajectory unless there is substantial and rapid reduction in consumption coupled with technological progress [2].
