What is sustainability?
What's your definition?
There
are many different definitions of "sustainability" and "sustainable development."
Depending on who you are and what you find important, your definition
or concept of sustainability will likely vary from others -- assuming
you have one. Many people have no idea what sustainability is, or argue
that it is so ambiguous that it is a meaningless term.
However, the most important words in our language, such as truth, justice,
love, freedom, faith, have multiple and often conflicting definitions.
Increasingly people are recognizing sustainability as one of the most
important ideas of the new century, that its practice and realization
will decide the very survival of our industrious human species. Thus it
is essential for each person to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation
for this concept and define what it means to you as an individual.
The international definition
It
is also important to know how this term is defined and used by policymakers
making national and international laws, treaties and other agreements.
To understand how the international policymaking community defines sustainability,
it is essential to recognize three key elements, which emerged from three
historic meetings of the world's heads of state (as well as major scientists,
business leaders, educators and public interest groups.) As citizens of
this planet, taking responsibility for the future we are creating, we
should all be familiar with these three elements:
1. Acknowledging responsibility to the future
"Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure
that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their own needs."
- World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), Our
Common Future (1987), page 24, para 27 [pdf]
2. Using an integrative framework
"...economic development, social development and environmental protection
are interdependent and mutually reinforcing components of sustainable
development, which is the framework for our efforts to achieve a higher
quality of life for all people."
- World Summit on Social Development (1995), Copenhagen
Declaration on Social Development, page 5, para. 6 [pdf]
3. Three overarching objectives
"These efforts will also promote the integration of the three components
of sustainable development, economic development, social development and
environmental protection, as interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars.
Poverty eradication, changing unsustainable patterns of production and
consumption and protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic
and social development are overarching objectives of,
and essential requirements for, sustainable development.
- World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002), Plan
of Implementation, page 8, para 2 [pdf]
Other definitions
The following represent a sample of various other statements about sustainability or sustainable development, highlighting different aspects or perspectives of the concept:
- "An economic state where the demands placed upon the environment
by people and commerce can be met without reducing the capacity of the
environment to provide for future generations. It can also be expressed
in the simple terms of an economic golden rule for the restorative economy:
leave the world better than you found it, take no more than you need,
try not to harm life of the environment, make amends if you do."
Paul Hawken, Ecology of Commerce
- Sustainability pertains to a balanced interaction between a population
and the carrying capacity of an environment such that the population
develops to express its full potential without adversely and irreversibly
affecting the carrying capacity of the environment upon which it depends.
Buckminster Fuller Institute
