Meadows, D. 1999. Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System. Hartland, VT: Sustainability Institute.

2.3.3.1 ANALYSIS: CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES, PROCESSES: Guidance: Interventions, institutions, governance - Interventions Human-environment systems are complicated and where to intervene to best encourage a sustainability transition is not obvious. Often the choice is made by a combination of precedent (improve on what was done before), ease of implementation (simplicity, low cost, existing program), or recent experience (especially of extreme events). In general, interventions are rarely made in underlying human-environment processes but rather to ameliorate consequences or to undertake adaptive responses. The Reading, by an early proponent of systems analysis as well as a policy advocate for sustainability, provides a generic list of leverage points for effective interventions. Leverage points that emphasize the nature and purpose of systems are most powerful, followed by those that address institutions, norms, and rules, then the many characteristics of flows, and finally the material content of stocks.

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