Handout – Concept of Sustainability

The Concept of Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is commonly defined as “development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987: 43). It is
generally conceived as resting on three pillars: economic development, social development and
environmental protection. Looking more closely into the term “sustainable”, it is defined as something that is
“able to be upheld or defended” (New Oxford American Dictionary, 2005). 

The first part of this definition indicates that sustainable development is the development that can be
maintained over time, while the second part indicates that sustainable development is the development that
can be safeguarded from the impact of negative events and processes. These two parts are closely related,
as it is not only events and processes that may impact development, but the means for development may
also increase or create new events and underlying processes that in turn make it difficult to maintain
development over time. For instance, our dependency of fossil fuels for energy has allowed for great
developmental leaps of many societies since the industrial revolution, but is at the same time the main
cause of climate change and ocean acidification that are now threatening the sole existence of all societies.
Regardless of whether they are sudden and dramatic, or gradual and obscure, negative events and their
underlying processes may cause deviations from our preferred expected development scenario limiting the
sustainability of our development. Hence, sustainable development is the development that can be
maintained over time and be safeguarded from the impact of negative events and their underlying
processes.

A requisite part of sustainable development related to the notion of being “able to be upheld”, is important
and brings into focus the importance of how we exploit our resources to maintain or develop some aspect
of society over time. 

Goals of Sustainability
In 2012, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development met to discuss and develop a set of
goals to work toward; they grew out of the Millennium Development Goals that claimed success in reducing
global poverty while acknowledging there was still much more to do. The Sustainable Development Goals
(SDG) eventually came up with a list of 17 items that included amongst other things:
• the end of poverty and hunger
• Better standards of education and healthcare, particularly as it pertains to water quality and better
sanitation
• to achieve gender equality
• sustainable economic growth while promoting jobs and stronger economies
• sustainability to include health of the land, air, and sea
Finally, it acknowledged the concept of nature having certain rights, that people have stewardship of the
world, and the importance of putting people at the forefront of solving these global issues.
Thus, sustainable development recognizes that growth must be both inclusive and environmentally sound
to reduce poverty and build shared prosperity for today’s population and to continue to meet the needs of
future generations. It is efficient with resources and carefully planned to deliver both immediate and long-
term benefits for people, the planet, and prosperity. The three pillars of sustainable development–economic
growth, environmental stewardship, and social inclusion (Fig)—carry across all sectors of development,
from cities facing rapid urbanization to agriculture, infrastructure, energy development and use, water
availability, and transportation.

Figure: Pillars of sustainable development

Many of these objectives may seem to conflict with each other in the short term. For example, industrial
growth might conflict with preserving natural resources. Yet, in the long term, responsible use of natural
resources now will help ensure that there are resources available for sustained industrial growth far into the
future.

Economic development is about providing incentives for businesses and other organizations to adhere to
sustainability guidelines beyond their normal legislative requirements. The supply and demand market is
consumerist in nature, and modern life requires a lot of resources every single day; economic development
is about giving people what they want without compromising quality of life, especially in the developing
world.

Social development is about awareness of and legislation protection of the health of people from pollution
and other harmful activities of business. It deals with encouraging people to participate in environmental
sustainability and teaching them about the effects of environmental protection as well as warning of the
dangers if we cannot achieve our goals.

Environmental protection is the need to protect the environment, whether the concept of 4 Rs (reduce,
recycle, recover, and reuse) are being achieved or not. Businesses that are able to keep their carbon
emissions low is toward environmental development. Environmental protection is the third pillar and, to
many, the primary concern of the future of humanity.

It defines how to protect ecosystems, air quality, integrity, and sustainability of our resources and focuses
on the elements that place stress on the environment. It also concerns how technology will drive our
greener future; and that developing technology is key to this sustainability and protecting the environment
of the future from potential damage that technological advances could potentially bring.

The process of describing indicators helps diverse members of a community reach consensus on what
sustainability means. Indicators help put sustainability in concrete terms that demonstrate a new way to
measure progress. Concepts like a person’s ecological footprint help people understand how their everyday
actions relate to issues that seem beyond the reach of a single individual and explain sustainability.

The Fourth ‘P’ of Sustainable Practice – Connecting Disciplines

Sustainable development is often characterized by three ‘P’s: People, Planet and Profit. These three ‘P’s
are based on the UN trichotomy of sustainable practice. People represent the socio-cultural issues, Planet
represents the environmental issues and Profit represents the economic issues [6]. Scientists can inform
society on what needs to change, but society tends to be reluctant to change. It is often the lack of political
will and leadership imposed by various lobbyists that prevent society from setting ambitious targets and
delivering on those targets. In our search for understanding sustainable practice and developing new
concepts to make current practice more sustainable, we have identified a fourth rope that must be pulled to
enable truly sustainable practice: that of Politics and Policy making. The figure below shows how
sustainable practice hangs in the balance of the four ‘P’s.

Figure: The four ‘P’s required to establish properly balanced sustainable practice.

The figure also indicates the main aspects of sustainable practice, that is equal access for all people to
sufficient energy, water and food. The technological knowledge, materials and know-how are available to
build appropriate engineering systems to enable sustainable development, e.g. sustainable transport
systems, agricultural practices, water and energy supply systems, but their implementation depends heavily
on the acceptance by human beings in recognizing the need to change their behaviour. There is a need for
a technology diffusion process that leads to applied technologies that enable behaviour change.
We argue that for a sustainable development, population needs can only develop within the limits of
available resources. Sustainable practice therefore starts with an assessment of the population needs on
the one hand and an assessment of the availability of resources on the other. Both assessments will follow
the four ‘P’s to structure the line of enquiry. The two assessments are brought together to develop
appropriate technologies and implementation strategies to balance needs and resources and enable
knowledge exchange bridging the gap between science and society. While developing the strategies, an
interactive network approach is followed. Those individuals, whose behavior needs to change, need to be
involved in the process of developing solutions to make their change easier and less threatening.
The fourth ‘P’ of sustainability, which is that of making Politics or Policy is the missing link between science
and society, between scientific warnings and societal action. To realize a transition to future energy,
visionary political leadership is needed as well as the will to implement transformative pathways.

Source:

“Sustainable Development.” Sustainable Development, Academic Press,

www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/sustainable-development.