System in Focus Maps
Systems thinking is primarily about identifying and appreciating relationships between things and exploring the ways interconnection and interdependence work together to achieve the goal and function of a system at play. The world is full of dynamic systems, many of which are invisible to us (unless you have invested in connecting with the very intuitive skill of systems thinking); through active identification and systems curiosity, we start to unravel the beautiful complexity at play around us all.
As an applied approach, systems thinking has many different branches and tools such as feedback loops, causality, archetypes, soft systems and systems mapping, to name just a few. Now, there is a new addition to the toolset of systems mapping: a system-in-focus map. A critical part of the new ISO Circular Economy Standards, it’s a fantastic tool for identifying and documenting what’s going on at the product, organisation or interorganisational level. It shows how resources flow through a defined system and interconnect with the broader social, economic and environmental systems at play around the system in focus.
Seeing and thinking in systems is a vital tool in sustainability and circularity, and a system-in-focus map is now an essential way of assessing the transition from a linear to a circular economy.
In this article, I explain some of the main approaches to thinking in and identifying systems. I dive into what a system-in-focus map looks like, along with some essentials of how to do it, so you can define the possibilities for circularity (or the actual circularity) within the system.
Systems are Everywhere
Everything that exists, be it by natural emergence or human creation, is part of and connected to complex, dynamic systems at play.
For example, a human being is a complex, dynamically interconnected system made up of important functional body systems like the cardiovascular system, neurological system, nervous system, digestive system, etc., all working together to achieve the goal of a living human. The human system is defined and held together by its system boundary of the skin, which safely protects all the important parts that work together to make the whole human system. When some parts are taken out, the system ceases to function; likewise, if the human system does not interact with the life-sustaining world around it via inhaling oxygen and inputting nutrients via food, then the system can not continue to function.
I’ve written extensively about systems and the practice of applied systems thinking over the years; if you’re new to systems, check out my series on Medium to build your foundational capacity on systems thinking.
A System in Focus
Systems are often assessed and mapped using various approaches to define and understand how they function and what state changes can be achieved through different interventions. A system undergoing assessment in any way can be referred to as a “system in focus”, whereby a system boundary containing the primary areas of assessment is defined. Secondary areas of assessment are identified outside of the initially-scoped boundary but are identified and observed for their importance and connection to the system in focus.
In ISO 59020 on assessing and measuring circularity, a system in focus is a “system that is defined by selected system boundaries and is the subject of a circularity measurement and a circularity assessment” (59020:2024, p2).
Let’s explore a few necessary essentials when it comes to system-in-focus identification and exploration: system boundaries, inputs and outputs.
System Boundaries
Just as skin serves as the system boundary for a human being, a system boundary is the framing used to contain the key parts of a system.
Systems are often nested together, so the boundary needs to be defined clearly. Some systems have very clear boundaries, and for others, it’s less obvious where the boundary is. Furthermore, when assessing a system-in-focus, you need to be able to define it based on the context and desire of the assessment. So, you may be looking at the organizational level, or perhaps just one product in a company’s production, but you must define what you are assessing, which helps determine what you are accountable for including within your system in focus.
For example, a company that produces and packages food is accountable for all aspects of its supply chain, from agriculture through to processing, packaging and distribution. But a company that only grows the crops and then sells the produce to another company would draw its boundary at the farm gate. An assessment of a single product, such as a cell phone, would include all materials that go into manufacturing, distribution and sales. Material extraction from nature and end of life would be just outside the system-in-foucs boundary of a linear version, but a circular version would have accountability for end of life and perhaps some parts of material extraction (if harvesting from waste streams, for example).
For the purpose of assessing circularity, I recommend starting by defining the scope at the organizational level and being very clear about what the entity is accountable for (all of that goes inside the primary system boundary). Then you define the aspects that you are not directly accountable for, but that are critical to the system (that goes in the outer system boundary). According to the ISO 59000 series, you must then connect your system in focus to the broader social, economic and ecological systems at play. More on that in a moment.
Inputs and Outputs
Natural systems are optimised to create and sustain life, but they rely on other systems to do so. This is also true for human-created technical systems, such as a factory or a car. A car has primary parts that work together to make the functional outcome that allows it to move safely. The gear system, steering system, braking system, etc., are all critical to the overarching function of moving things safely at speed. Take a windscreen wiper off and you don’t stop the car from working, but if you remove the steering wheel or the brakes, then this system would cease to function or have dire outcomes.
A factory, like a human and a car, is a hungry system that requires continuous inputs to maintain its function. Inputs are the resources that go into a system, like materials, energy and water. Outputs are the waste and functional things (like a product or energy) that emerge from the system’s function. For a human, a primary output is poop, along with the energy and work that humans can produce from processing the inputs of food, water and air. A car needs a fuel or a power source to convert into motion, and a factory needs resources from nature to transform into sellable goods.
Inputs and outputs work dynamically; the system processes inputs in some way as they flow through the system, which results in outputs. In nature, outputs are designed to be absorbed and reused by other parts of the system. This is the case with leaves that fall from a tree; microorganisms digest them, and the nutrients are cycled back through the system.
Human-made industrial systems, however, often have waste products that can’t be safely absorbed back into nature (such as air, water or waste-based pollutants), which is why there is a push to redesign these systems to be circular, mimicking the way nature cycles all materials in sustainable and regenerative ways.
All these concepts are critical to developing a system-in-focus map, which defines how things flow through a system and uncovers the possibilities for transforming a system from one state to another (such as from linear to circular).
System-in-Focus Maps
The purpose of a system-in-focus map is to measure resource flows into and out of a system, such as a business, production facility or even an entire city, and then to identify the associated impacts and potential or actual rates of circularity.
For example, if you were a wine producer and your company owned vineyards as well as maintained bottling capacity, your system-in-focus map would include all of the aspects you managed, from the land use through to the wine making and bottling. If your company purchased grapes from a vineyard and then made the wine and bottled it, you would include the agricultural production just outside your primary system in focus. Even though you don’t control or manage that, it’s critical to your system, and whilst you do not have agency over it, your system relies on it. Thus, you could influence how it’s done, which would improve or decrease your sustainability. All systems related to wine production are interacting with the social, economic and environmental systems around them, so these must also be identified and impacts/reliances noted.
A system-in-focus map can be used initially as a starting point to map out what is presently going on in a system and collect baseline data; this helps with benchmarking or identifying what may need to be changed to achieve a greater sustainability/circularity outcome.
Once your base case is documented, you can make changes to conceptualise and work on a new version, or you can follow the guidelines in ISO 59020 and identify the material flows based on whether they are virgin renewable or virgin non-renewable, recycled or reused. There are then calculations laid out in the standards that can be applied to determine the rate of circularity, and the outputs are measured for their reticulation rates within the system in focus or the broader socio-technological-environmental system.
Let’s look at some of the critical aspects of creating a benchmarking system-in-focus map to help you get started in creating one.
Developing a System-in-Focus Map
A system-in-focus map is a visual representation of a system’s function; it’s used to define the way resources flow through a system. In the case of circularity, it defines what is circular and what is not. A system-in-focus map is critical to assessing circularity in line with ISO 59020.
A system-in-focus map is very similar to a material flow analysis (MFA), but it has some specific differences.
Firstly, you define what you are assessing, at what level and for what purpose. Then you draw out what is inside your primary and secondary system-level boundaries. Inside your main square will be your key system features (such as mechanical processes, business activities, etc.); these will connect to system elements that are outside of your primary system but that are critical for them to function (materials, etc.).
Your inflows will be documented as the resources coming into your primary system boundary and the outflows that are produced as a result of them being processed. In the case of materials you reuse inside your system, they stay inside the primary scope, and elements that flow outside of your boundary are identified for what happens to them. For example, waste and emissions escape outside of your system and back into the natural world. But if you were to redesign your processes to capture these externalities and reuse them, then you would demonstrate how they are now incorporated into your system, or perhaps you set up a partnership where these are safely absorbed by another system. This is then outside your initial scope, but still within your system-in-focus map.
Life Cycle Thinking and System-in-Focus Maps
Those of you who are familiar with life cycle thinking/assessment would know that you start with a goal and scope and define what is to be assessed and what is excluded. I see some similarities with these methods of assessing circularity and also think there is a natural connection between these two forms of assessment.
In life cycle thinking maps, we define what is happening to the product or process across its five main life cycle stages, starting at the extraction of raw materials, moving to manufacturing, use and end of life. The packaging and transport stage happens across life and is also identified. By overlaying life cycle maps with a system in focus, you can quickly gain key insights into the way materials are flowing through your system and what opportunities there are to redesign for circularity.
Conclusion
Systems mapping is a technique used in business and academia, and I’ve long been a proponent of analog systems mapping as a critical part of any sustainability and circular economy approach. The ability to define and measure the rate of circularity of a system is now enabled through ISO 59020, which is very exciting for those of us who have been working to get products and business processes to be more sustainable.
This is an emerging space. Assessing circularity has only just started to form as a professional skillset, although MFAs have been used for quite some time and have really helped to determine rates of circularity at scale. And systems thinking is an ancient tradition very much embedded in First Nations’ knowledge systems; the widespread use of systems thinking in sustainability and circularity is only just taking hold.
I see system-in-focus maps as now being a vital toolset for any business or product producer who is working to understand and transform their business model. I personally advise companies to start with a system-in-focus map when getting started or progressing along their sustainability journey, as it allows for a clear snapshot of what’s going on in their system. This aligns everyone and enables a starting point for further progress. It also enlightens them to things going on in your system and how they can make changes to address them.
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Want to learn more about how to do this? I am running a 4-part live online training course on systems thinking for sustainability in July 2025 and will have an entire session dedicated to creating system-in-focus maps. Sign up here >