From sustainability to sustainizability

Following the recent introduction of the Sustainability over Sets (SOS) concept as a sustainability analysis tool with broad flexibility in incorporating human input, in this work, the concepts of Sustainizability (SIZ) and Sustainizability over Sets (SIZOS) are introduced, as novel frameworks for sustainable system synthesis. Springing off the conceptual foundation of sustainability, SIZ (and SIZOS) refers to the existence of allowable external actions, and/or design changes that can render sustainable (sustainable over a set) an unsustainable (unsustainable over a set) system. Utilizing earlier mathematical results for SOS, rigorous necessary and sufficient conditions for SIZOS are presented. Two case studies, on a two-dimensional biological waste treatment system, and a three-dimensional food chain system, are then presented to illustrate the developed necessary and sufficient conditions for SIZOS.