Sustainable development has been defined in many ways, but the most frequently quoted definition is form Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report:
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains which it two key concepts:
· The concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world’s poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and
· The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs.”
Organization on the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs.’
All definitions of sustainable development require that we see the world as a system- a system that connects space; and a system that connects time.
When you think of the world as a system over space, you grow to understand that air pollution from North America affects air quality in Asia, and that pesticides sprayed in Argentina could harm fish stocks off the coast of Australia.
And when you think of the world as a system over time, you start to realize that the decisions our grandparents made about how to farm the land continue to affect agricultural practice today; and the economic policies we endorse today will have an impact on urban poverty when our children are adults.
We also understand that quality of life is a system, too. It’s good to be physically healthy, but what if you are poor and don’t have access to education? It’s good to have a secure income, but what if the air in your part of the world is unclean? And it’s good to have freedom of religious expression, but what if you can’t feed your family?
Sustainable Use is a pattern of resources use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come. Sustainable development ties together concern for the carrying capacity of natural systems with the social challenges facing humanity. As early as the 1970s. “Sustainability” was employed to describe an economy “in equilibrium with basic ecological support systems.
The field of sustainable development can be conceptually broken into three constituent parts: ecological sustainability, economic sustainability and socio-political sustainability.
Sustainable development requires environmental health, economic prosperity and social equity.
Earth Council
Sustainable development is the achievement of continued economic and social development without detriment to the environment and natural resources. The quality of future human activity and development is increasingly seen as being dependent on maintaining this balance.
European Foundation for the improvement of Living and working Conditions (an agency of the European commission)
Sustainability means resolving the conflict between two competing goals; the sustenance of human life and the integrity of nature. Why two competing goals? Living beyond our ecological means will lead to the destruction of humanity’s only home. Having insufficient natural resources, and living in unsatisfactory and inequitable ways will cause destructive conflict and degrade our social fabric. In a sense , we are putting a new spin on the old nature vs. nurture question. How can we get nurture without destroying its ultimate sources, nature?
Redefining Progress
Sustainable development involves the simultaneous pursuit of economic prosperity environmental quality and social equity. Companies aiming for sustainability need to perform not against a single, financial bottom line but against this triple bottom line.
The world Business Council for Sustainable Development
Improving the quality of life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems.
World conservation Union
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