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BACKGROUND: Sustainability is a highly important theme worldwide and currently is being tackled by almost all disciplines. Indeed, the future of humanity is dependent on the actions taken now and in the immediate future. The Ergonomics and Human Factors (E/HF) community has not been indifferent to this issue, and one of the concrete actions adopted by the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) was the establishment of the "Human Factors for Sustainable Development" (HFSD) Technical Committee. OBJECTIVE: To identify future paths of action, this paper recognizes the trajectory of the HFSD Technical Committee, summarizes the contributions presented at IEA2021, the International Congress on Ergonomics held virtually in Vancouver in 2021, and reflects on key aspects that should be boosted by the Technical Committee. METHODS: This is a qualitative interpretative study that reflects on the contributions of members of the HFSD community working on E/HF for sustainability. RESULTS: Central topics and opportunities in E/HF and sustainability include complexity of systems, behaviors, and work; energy use and consumption; co-design, interconnectivity, territories, and the relationships with stakeholders. CONCLUSION: Although the contributions have been growing, there is still a lot of work needed, both theoretically and practically. Themes to be discussed include the concepts of sustainability and work. Considering the centrality of human beings (i.e., decision making for achieving the different dimensions of sustainability), the authors identify a set of values as core principles for leading the discussion.

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This article presents the results of a documentary-exploratory review of design methods and concepts associated with human and environmental factors, based on a qualitative-quantitative analysis of coincidences with the fundamentals of ergoecology and in line with sustainable dynamics, with a view to putting the principles of ergoecology into practice in product/service design and development. 61.6% of 696 documents found represent work on conceptual developments, while the remaining 38.4% refer to design methods. Searches were refined using Nvivo-10 software, and 101 documents were obtained about theoretical aspects while 17 focused on the application of methods, and these formed the analysis universe. The results show how little concern there is for working comprehensively on human and environmental aspects, and a trend toward segmentation of human and environmental aspects in the field of product/service design and development can be seen, at both concept and application/methodology levels. It was concluded from the above that comprehensive, simultaneous work is needed on human and environmental aspects, clarity and conceptual unity, in order to achieve sustainability in practical matters and ensure that ergoecology-compatible design methods are applied.

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In this paper, we analyse two approaches that attempt to address how a human factors and ergonomics (HFE) perspective can contribute to the sustainability of the human race. We outline the principles, purposes and fields of application of ergoecology and green ergonomics, and thereafter deal with their context of emergence, and the overlaps in purpose, and principles. Shared values are deduced and related to socio-technical principles for systems' design. Social responsibility and environmental/ecospheric responsibility are the leading threads of ergoecology and green ergonomics, giving rise to the values of: respect for human rights, respect for the Earth, respect for ethical decision-making, appreciation of complexity, respect for transparency and openness, and respect for diversity. We discuss the consequences of considering these values in HFE theory and practice.

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Is it possible to establish (at short, medium and long term) future work conditions or expected work conditions for Colombian people considering upcoming work technologies? Is it possible to anticipate future work desirable work conditions for Colombian people in order to plan (foresee?) work technologies? These questions guided this research and they point to an action thesis and to a reaction one in this context of work crisis. Even though a work technology establishes where, when, how, who, who with, and using what element work is done, it also establishes certain work conditions. Besides, multiple forms of considering and deconstructing past have been created from many disciplines. However, in order to foresee or construct work technologies requires a different perspective for looking further. This research has been carried out considering other disciplines points of view regarding Future Studies and Future Thinking Studies. This research has the purpose of finding future paths for Future Thinking Studies from ergonomics point of view in this moment of global work crisis we are going through.

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Este artículo tiene como objeto explorar dos formas de pensamiento respecto a las condiciones futuras de trabajo, en relación con las crisis del trabajo de principios de siglo XXI. Estas dos formas de pensamiento futuro guiaron la investigación y apuntan a una tesis de acción donde las condiciones de trabajo futuro se esperan y una tesis de reacción donde las condiciones de trabajo futuras se construyen. Ahora bien, desde disciplinas como la sociología y la economía se han creado múltiples formas de ver al pasado tecnológico para reconstruirlo, pero, observar hacia el futuro requiere otro tipo de mirada. Disciplinas como la ingeniería y el diseño que trabajan sobre los estudios del futuro y el pensamiento futuro, permitieron empujar esta investigación, con el propósito de generar alternativas para el pensamiento.

Is it possible to establish (at short, medium and long term) future work conditions or expected work conditions for Colombian people considering upcoming work technologies? Is it possible to anticipate future work desirable work conditions for Colombian people in order to plan (foresee?) work technologies? These questions guided this research and they point to an action thesis and to a reaction one in this context of work crisis. Even though a work technology establishes where, when, how, who, who with, and using what element work is done, it also establishes certain work conditions. Besides, multiple forms of considering and deconstructing past have been created from many disciplines. However, in order to foresee or construct work technologies requires a different perspective for looking further. This research has been carried out considering other disciplines points of view regarding Future Studies and Future Thinking Studies. This research has the purpose of finding future paths for Future Thinking Studies from ergonomics point of view in this moment of global work crisis we are going through.

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This paper presents the model "Work Situation Operative Model" - MOST (after its Spanish acronym). It offers a comprehensive, systemic approach to analysing work stations and/or work processes, serving also as a framework for pursuing various ergonomic and occupational health and safety goals. Originally produced for a food sector company, the model has been extended and successfully applied in several industries in Colombia and Ecuador, including cement, oil, and paper industries. Based on a systemic understanding of work systems and tasks, the model not only allows different, commonly-used methods and tools for evaluating or assessing the risk of muscular-sketetal disorders to be included, but also supports occupational risk management strategies. Hence, one of its more important contributions relies on providing meaningful information that is useful for improving the work station and/or work process through design and re-design, by focusing on the interactions between all system elements.

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This work details the conceptual and methodological evolution of 'Ergoecology' and its relationship to certain comparable disciplinary proposals and standards, with a view to making its current status known and fostering discussion and development of it in a broader context. 'Ergoecology' is a discipline which relates the ergonomic system to 'environmental factors', stressing the relationships between ecological-geographical aspects and human activities. After analyzing previously-developed and partially-validated methods, strengths are established, together with areas where there is room for improvement, based on conceptual validity. The objectives, principles, and premises of 'Ergoecology' will be revised and therefore it will be able to be compared with other disciplinary and regulatory developments. Finally, new concepts and notions are proposed, together with basic principles and axioms that will enable 'Ergoecology' to advance in both, the theoretical and the practical dimensions, leaving the door open to be disseminated and applied.

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Ergonomics has been successful in increasing productivity and comfort in the work arena. It has also contributed to reducing occupational accidents. Despite this, ergonomics is frequently limited to understanding the health-disease process related to human-technology interactions, as this process is more complex than what can be understood from an ergonomic evaluation. Recognising this limit, this work ontologically and epistemologically contrasts the notions of 'human being' and 'social subject', and concludes that the study object of ergonomics, or human-technology interaction, greatly depends on social aspects that nowadays are not tackled explicitly: route (history), project, structure, agency, motivations and power. It also analyses how participatory ergonomics tacitly includes many of these aspects, including some implications that the change of notion, from 'human being' to 'social subject', brings to the understanding of the health-disease process and the reduction of associated risks during human activities.

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This study focussed on the work system design to be used by a Colombian food sector company for distributing products. It considered the concept of participative ergonomics, where people from the commercial, logistics, operation, occupational health areas worked in conjunction with the industrial designers, ergonomists who methodologically led the project. As a whole, the project was conceived as having five phases: outline, diagnosis, modelling the process, scalability, instrumentation. The results of the project translate into procedures for selecting, projecting a new distribution centre, the operational process model, a description of ergonomic systems that will enable specific work stations to be designed, the procedure for adapting existing warehouses. Strategically, this work helped optimise the company's processes and ensure that knowledge would be transferred within it. In turn, it became a primary prevention strategy in the field of health, aimed at reducing occupational risks, improving the quality of life at work.

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