Environmental Value Systems (DP IB Environmental Systems & Societies (ESS)): Revision Note

Environmental Value Systems

• An environmental value system (EVS) is the way that an individual, or any group of people, perceives the environment and the resources it provides them with

  • That includes you - your environmental value system determines the way that you perceive and evaluate environmental issues, as well as the course of action you might decide to take regarding these issues

• A person’s or group’s environmental value system is shaped and influenced by a variety of factors, including cultural, religious, social, political, economic and environmental factors

  • These factors act as flows of information into individuals within societies

  • Individuals then process and transform this information into their perception of the environment and how to act on environmental matters

EVS Inputs & Outputs

• An environmental value system is considered as a system because it is determined by a set of inputs (i.e. the factors described above) and generates a set of outputs (in the form of of the person’s or group’s perceptions, evaluations, decisions and actions)

Like any system, an environmental value system (EVS) has a set of inputs and a set of outputs