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What is the definition of Sustainability - Sustainability Defined kennuncorked.com Linking Wine with a Sustainable Lifestyle "Il y a une civilisation du vin, celle où les hommes veulent se connaître afin de ne pas se combattre." |
Sustainability is just one word and yet there seems to be hundreds of definitions. Just do a search on the internet using "sustainability" as the only search criteria.
The best-known definition of sustainability or sustainable development is attributed to Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway, and Chairperson of the World Commission on Environment and Development. The Commission was established by the Secretary General of the UN in 1983, and reported in 1987 ("Our Common Future", 1987).the World Commission on Environment and Development. The definition suggests that sustainability is defined as "forms of progress that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs." Since 1983, the standard and most generally used definition of "sustainability is: "Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". (Return to Top)
sus•tain•able
circa 1727
In his own chapter, "The Nature of the Quest for a Sustainable Society", he describes "the sustainable society is one that lives within the self-perpetuating limits of its environment. That society... is not a "no growth" society... It is rather, a society that recognizes the limits of growth... [and] looks for alternative ways of growing". "The management of sustainable growth" by Woodlands Conference on Growth Policy 1979. Published in 1981, Published in cooperation with The Woodlands Conference [by] Pergamon Press (New York) (Return to Top)
The strategy defines development as "the modification of the biosphere and the application of human, financial, living and non-living resources to satisfy human needs and improve the quality of human life". The section "Towards Sustainable Development" identifies the main agents of habitat destruction as poverty, population pressure, social inequity and the terms of trade. It calls for a new International Development Strategy with the aims of redressing inequities, achieving a more dynamic and stable world economy, stimulating accelerating economic growth and countering the worst impacts of poverty. "Sustainable development" is defined as the maintenance of essential ecological processes and life support systems, the preservation of genetic diversity, and the sustainable utilization of species and ecosystems. An updated version entitled "Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living" (IUCN/WWF, 1991) was published in 1991. (Return to Top) The report weaves together consideration of social, economic, cultural, and environmental issues. For the first time it gives some direction for comprehensive global solutions. It also popularizes the term "sustainable development" defining it as: "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". (Chairperson Gro Harlem Brundtland) (Return to Top)
Allan Solomon in the Forward to Toward Ecological Sustainability in Europe: Climate, Water Resources, Soils, and Biota - a report written for the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) he states that: "Ecologically sustainable development is a condition in which society's use of renewable resources takes place without destruction of the resources or of the environmental context which they require. One problem for society in such use is the inadequacy of the knowledge required to define sustainability limits for specific characteristics of the environment. Thus, continuing regional economic development, combined with anthropogenic changes at global scales may inadvertently and unnecessarily obliterate plant and animal populations, impoverish forest ecosystems, destroy soil fertility and structure, and contaminate water supplies." (Return to Top)
1990 - "Sustainable agriculture" addressed by US Congress in "Farm Bill"
 Under that law, "the term sustainable agriculture means an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will, over the long term:
[Subchapter I: Findings, Purposes, and Definitions, U.S. Code, Title 7, Chapter 64-Agricultural Research, Extension and Teaching, Available at GPO Access: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/ getdoc.cgi?dbname=browse_usc&docid=Cite:+7USC3103 (8/23/07)] (Return to Top)
The strategy builds on the first World Conservation Strategy. In order to keep the focus on the concept of "sustainability" the strategy deliberately avoids using the term "sustainable development". Instead it talks about a "sustainable society", "sustainable living" and "sustainability" itself. (Return to Top)
It results in the publication of Agenda 21, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Rio Declaration, and a statement of non-binding Forest Principles. The terms "sustainable development" and "sustainability" are used throughout the Agenda 21 document but are undefined. The main achievement of the Earth Summit is a treaty to reduce emissions of "greenhouse gases" which help trap heat in the atmosphere and are believed to be a cause of global warming. Nations adopt 1990 as the benchmark year at the summit in which industrialized countries agree to take voluntary steps to cut emissions to that year's levels. Most countries, other than Germany and Great Britain, have failed to meet that goal. The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was created in December 1992 to ensure effective follow-up of UNCED, to monitor and report on implementation of the agreements at the local, national, regional and international levels. It was agreed that a five year review of Earth Summit progress would be made in 1997 by the United Nations General Assembly meeting in special session. The full implementation of Agenda 21, the Programme for Further Implementation of Agenda 21 and the Commitments to the Rio principles, were strongly reaffirmed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg, South Africa from 26 August to 4 September 2002. (Return to Top)
The phrase was coined by John Elkington in 1994. It was later expanded and articulated in his 1998 book Cannibals with Forks: the Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. Sustainability, itself, was first defined by the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations in 1987. The concept of TBL demands that a company's responsibility be to stakeholders rather than shareholders. In this case, "stakeholders" refers to anyone who is influenced, either directly or indirectly, by the actions of the firm. According to the stakeholder theory, the business entity should be used as a vehicle for coordinating stakeholder interests, instead of maximizing shareholder (owner) profit. (Return to Top) The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in their report "Pollution Prevention and Control, Environmental Criteria for Sustainable Transport" point out that the originators of the term sustainable development had a particular definition of the word "sustainable" in mind: "capable of being continued" so they went on to define sustainable development as "development (activity) that is capable of being continued". (Return to Top)
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