Some of the things I have done and plan to do that are both sustainable and included system thinking are:

•          We cut down several trees to create more hours of sun exposure to the garden. The wood chips were used as mulch in my garden to retain water. These same trees are destined to become planter boxes and were used to build a chicken run. Solving one problem (lack of sun in the garden) I was able to not only use a natural solution but was also able to enhance the chicken habitat and add organic matter to the garden as well as fight against the sun drying out the soil of around my plants. This will be needed as there is now 3 more hours of direct sunlight to my garden. It will be interesting to see how the addition of wood chips impacts the chemistry of my garden.
•          This spring we purchased chickens and use the manure and dirty shavings as a way to enhance my compost (organic matter & carbon). We will be using the by-product of the eggs- the eggshells- to make our own calcium supplements for the chickens if and when the eggshells start to weaken. And the chickens will get scrap vegetables from the garden.

Systems thinking and the component thereof are part of my daily work life. Process improvements are key to my team's success. If there is waste in the process, we step back understand the process, evaluate its value to the program then break the process into pieces to determine where the opportunities for improvements are. This includes multiple assessments, connections to other processes, training, observations, consultations, tests, implementations, re-evaluation of short-term and long terms gains (or losses) and eventually recognition of successes usually measure in dollars or time saved.

I think if systems thinking is not used to solve a problem there is a high likelihood more time and money will be spent on fixing a series of other issues. It's better to understand the cost of an improvement before you start any physical work, otherwise it may be a rabbit hole of frustrations that could have been avoided, I’m speaking from my own experience.