{ "model": { "rank": 4499, "code": "thing-q219416", "model_id": "vr.tr.sustainability", "name": "sustainability", "purpose": "Let an agent explain sustainability as a concept and its dimensions, relay frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the Brundtland definition with attribution, describe domain-specific uses, and present debates and criticisms neutrally.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.QLT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q219416/", "tier": 2, "score": 75, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "urban sustainability", "software sustainability", "Environmental Rule of Law", "sustainability transition", "curation sustainability", "green school infrastructure", "Sustainability in Dubai", "cultural sustainability", "sustainable living", "corporate sustainability", "energy descent", "social sustainability", "sustainability at American colleges and universities", "sustainable product" ], "aliasCount": 14, "merged": 14, "knownIn": 75, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.sustainability", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q219416", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q219416", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T21:54:36Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 3, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q219416", "registryId": "vr.tr.sustainability", "name": "sustainability", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.QLT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q219416/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.sustainability", "name": "sustainability", "purpose": "Let an agent explain sustainability as a concept and its dimensions, relay frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the Brundtland definition with attribution, describe domain-specific uses, and present debates and criticisms neutrally.", "definition": "The capacity of a system or practice to be maintained over the long term without exhausting the resources or damaging the conditions on which it depends, applied to environmental, economic and social systems together, as in sustainable development defined by the Brundtland Commission as meeting present needs without compromising future generations; the term is also applied to specific domains such as cities, software, institutions and collections.", "what_it_is_for": "Maintaining systems and practices over the long term.", "affordances": [ "explain the concept and dimensions", "relay frameworks and indicators", "describe domain-specific uses", "present debates with attribution" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Long-term perspective", "Three dimensions", "Frameworks and indicators", "Contested meanings" ], "appearance": "Not a visible object; seen in policies, indicators, designs and reports.", "visual_identification": [ "Long-term maintainability without depleting foundations", "Environmental, economic and social dimensions", "Resilience and efficiency are related but distinct concepts" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "Sustainable Development Goals", "typical_range": "17", "unit": "count", "note": "adopted 2015" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "environmental sustainability", "economic sustainability", "social sustainability", "urban sustainability", "sustainability of software, institutions and collections", "sustainability transitions as a research field", "environmental rule of law as a governance concept" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "quality", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "value", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is pursued by", "target": "sustainable development", "why": "the policy programme" }, { "relation": "is measured by", "target": "sustainability indicator", "why": "in reporting" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "UN Sustainable Development Goals", "ISO 14001 and related management standards", "Sustainability reporting standards such as GRI and ISSB", "Environmental law frameworks" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Greenwashing and vague claims", "Trade-offs between dimensions ignored", "Presenting contested definitions as settled" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "concept", "name": "Concept", "description": "What sustainability is.", "rationale": "Definition.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition and dimensions.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is sustainability, and what are its dimensions, as defined by major frameworks with attribution?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about sustainability in general or a specific domain?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "domains", "name": "Domains", "description": "Domain uses.", "findings": [ { "id": "domains-finding", "name": "Domains", "description": "Domains.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is the concept applied to cities, software, institutions and collections?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific domain?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "frameworks", "name": "Frameworks", "description": "Frameworks and measurement.", "rationale": "Sources.", "layers": [ { "id": "goals", "name": "Goals", "description": "Goals and standards.", "findings": [ { "id": "goals-finding", "name": "Goals", "description": "Goals.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do the Sustainable Development Goals and management and reporting standards require?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific framework?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "indicators", "name": "Indicators", "description": "Indicators.", "findings": [ { "id": "indicators-finding", "name": "Indicators", "description": "Indicators.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is sustainability measured, and what do indicators show, with sources?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "debate", "name": "Debate", "description": "Debates and critiques.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "critiques", "name": "Critiques", "description": "Critiques.", "findings": [ { "id": "critiques-finding", "name": "Critiques", "description": "Critiques.", "questions": [ { "text": "What critiques of the concept exist, from weak versus strong sustainability to degrowth, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "greenwashing", "name": "Greenwashing", "description": "Claims and greenwashing.", "findings": [ { "id": "greenwashing-finding", "name": "Greenwashing", "description": "Greenwashing.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are sustainability claims verified, and what rules address greenwashing?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits greenwashing?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "practice", "name": "Practice", "description": "Practice and history.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "transitions", "name": "Transitions", "description": "Transitions.", "findings": [ { "id": "transitions-finding", "name": "Transitions", "description": "Transitions.", "questions": [ { "text": "What does research on sustainability transitions say about how systems change?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History of the idea.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did the idea develop from forestry and Brundtland to the SDGs?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits sustainable development?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each dimension or domain be a separate entry?", "How should indicator frameworks be linked?", "The registry entry has merged aliases naming domain-specific and governance concepts; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a sustainability, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain sustainability as a concept and its dimensions, relay frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the Brundtland definition with attribution, describe domain-specific uses, and present debates and criticisms neutrally.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: urban sustainability, software sustainability, Environmental Rule of Law, sustainability transition, curation sustainability, green school infrastructure, Sustainability in Dubai, cultural sustainability, sustainable living, corporate sustainability, energy descent, social sustainability.", "14 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 75 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a sustainability, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "urban sustainability", "software sustainability", "Environmental Rule of Law", "sustainability transition", "curation sustainability", "green school infrastructure", "Sustainability in Dubai", "cultural sustainability", "sustainable living", "corporate sustainability", "energy descent", "social sustainability" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 75 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 14 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one sustainability from another, and a sustainability from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a sustainability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a sustainability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a sustainability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a sustainability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a sustainability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a sustainability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a sustainability sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a sustainability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a sustainability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a sustainability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a sustainability from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a sustainability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a sustainability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a sustainability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a sustainability passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a sustainability between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a sustainability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a sustainability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a sustainability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a sustainability, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a sustainability is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a sustainability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a sustainability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a sustainability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What sustainability is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of sustainability are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is sustainability operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of sustainability and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of sustainability?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as sustainability?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a sustainability came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a sustainability and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a sustainability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a sustainability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a sustainability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a sustainability is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a sustainability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a sustainability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a sustainability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }