• Embodying sustainability values
o Valuing sustainability: to reflect on personal values; identify and explain how values vary among people and over time, while critically evaluating how they align with sustainability values
o Supporting fairness: to support equity and justice for current and future generations and learn from previous generations for sustainability
o Promoting nature: to acknowledge that humans are part of nature; and to respect the needs and rights of other species and of nature itself in order to restore and regenerate healthy and resilient ecosystems

• Embracing complexity in sustainability
o Systems thinking: to approach a sustainability problem from all sides; to consider time, space and context in order to understand how elements interact within and between systems
o Critical thinking: to assess information and arguments, identify assumptions, challenge the status quo, and reflect on how personal, social and cultural backgrounds influence thinking and conclusions
o Problem framing: to formulate current or potential challenges as a sustainability problem in terms of difficulty, people involved, time and geographical scope, in order to identify suitable approaches to anticipating and preventing problems, and to mitigating and adapting to already existing problems

• Envisioning sustainable futures
o Futures literacy: to envision alternative sustainable futures by imagining and developing alternative scenarios and identifying the steps needed to achieve a preferred sustainable future
o Adaptability: to manage transitions and challenges in complex sustainability situations and make decisions related to the future in the face of uncertainty, ambiguity and risk
o Exploratory thinking: to adopt a relational way of thinking by exploring and linking different disciplines, using creativity and experimentation with novel ideas or methods

• Acting for sustainability
o Political agency: to navigate the political system, identify political responsibility and accountability for unsustainable behaviour, and demand effective policies for sustainability
o Collective action: to act for change in collaboration with others
o Individual initiative: to identify own potential for sustainability and to actively contribute to improving prospects for the community and the planet

The leading consideration for the necessity of undergraduate programmes such as BASUS is the growing demand in the job market for professionals equipped with knowledge and skills that allow them to react to emerging problems concerning areas such as the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, just transition, corporate social responsibility, policymaking, compliance, etc. Through the programme’s commitment to holistic science, strong research education and the development of soft skills, the graduates of the programme will boast skills and knowledge that they could employ in further higher education through graduate and postgraduate studies as well as in professional work both in the private and public sector.