Sustainable development

Sustainable development is defined as balancing the fulfillment of human needs with the protection of the natural environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but in the indefinite future. The term was used by the Brundtland Commission which coined what has become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

The field of sustainable development can be conceptually broken into four constituent parts: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, social sustainability and political sustainability.

Scope and definitions

The Brundtland Commission, formally the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), known by the name of its Chair Gro Harlem Brundtland, was convened by the United Nations in 1983. The commission was created to address growing concern "about the accelerating deterioration of the human environment and natural resources and the consequences of that deterioration for economic and social development." In establishing the commission, the UN General Assembly recognized that environmental problems were global in nature and determined that it was in the common interest of all nations to establish policies for sustainable development.

Sustainable development does not focus solely on environmental issues. More broadly, sustainable development policies encompass three general policy areas: economic, environmental and social. In support of this, several United Nations texts, most recently the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, refer to the "interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars" of sustainable development as economic development, social development, and environmental protection.

Scheme of sustainable development: at the confluence of three preoccupations.

The Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (UNESCO, 2001) elaborates further the concept by stating that "...cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature”; it becomes “one of the roots of development understood not simply in terms of economic growth, but also as a means to achieve a more satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual existence". In this vision, cultural diversity is the fourth policy area of sustainable development.

Green development is generally differentiated from Sustainable development in that Green development prioritizes what its proponents consider to be environmental sustainability over economic and cultural considerations. Proponents of Sustainable Development argue that it provides a context in which to improve overall sustainability where cutting edge Green development is unattainable. For example, a cutting edge treatment plant with extremely high maintenance costs may not be sustainable in regions of the world with less financial resources. An environmentally ideal plant that is shut down due to bankruptcy is obviously less sustainable than one that is maintainable by the indigenous community, even if it is somewhat less effective from an environmental standpoint.

Some research activities start from this definition to argue that the environment is a combination of nature and culture. The Network of Excellence "Sustainable Development in a Diverse World" SUS.DIV, sponsored by the European Union, works in this direction. It integrates multidisciplinary capacities and interprets cultural diversity as a key element of a new strategy for sustainable development.

The United Nations Division for Sustainable Development lists the following areas as coming within the scope of Sustainable Development:

Agriculture Atmosphere Biodiversity Biotechnology Capacity-building Climate Change Consumption and Production Patterns Demographics Desertification and Drought Disaster Reduction and Management

Education and Awareness Energy Finance Forests Fresh Water Health Human Settlements Indicators Industry Information for Decision Making and Participation Integrated Decision Making

International Law International Cooperation for Enabling Environment Institutional Arrangements Land management Major Groups Mountains National Sustainable Development Strategies Oceans and Seas Poverty Sanitation

Science Small Islands Sustainable tourism Technology Toxic Chemicals Trade and Environment Transport Waste (Hazardous) Waste (Radioactive) Waste (Solid) Water

Sustainable Development is an ambiguous concept, as a wide array of views has fallen under its umbrella. The concept has included notions of weak sustainability, strong sustainability and deep ecology. Different conceptions also reveal a strong tension between ecocentrism and anthropocentrism. Thus, the concept remains weakly defined and contains a large amount of debate as to its precise definition.

During the last ten years, different organizations have tried to measure and monitor the proximity to what they consider sustainability by implementing what it has been called sustainability metric and indices.

Criticism of the term

Many environmentalists have criticized some interpertations of the term "sustainable development" as an oxymoron, claiming that economic policies based on concepts of growth and continued depletion of resources cannot be sustainable, since that term implies resources remain constant. Some people prefer the term "developing sustainability", as it does not imply that something needs to be created.

Environmental sustainability

Environmental sustainability is defined as the ability of the environment to continue to function properly indefinitely. This involves meeting the present needs of humans without endangering the welfare of future generations. The goal of environmental sustainability is to minimize environmental degradation, and to halt and reverse the processes they lead to.

An "unsustainable situation" occurs when natural capital (the sum total of nature's resources) is used up faster than it can be replenished. Sustainability requires that human activity only uses nature's resources at a rate at which they can be replenished naturally. Theoretically, the long term result of environmental degradation would be local environments that are no longer able to sustain human populations to any degree. Such degradation on a global scale could imply extinction for humanity.

Consumption of renewable resources	State of environment	Sustainability
More than nature's ability to replenish	Environmental degradation	Not sustainable
Equal to nature's ability to replenish	Environmental equilibrium	Steady-state Sustainability
Less than nature's ability to replenish	Environmental renewal	Sustainable development

File:Earth flag PD.jpg

The Earth Day flag includes a NASA photo.

Sustainability is a characteristic of a process or state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely.

Sustainabiltity focuses on providing the best outcomes for both the human and natural environments now, and into the indefinite future. In recent years an academic and public discourse has led to the use of the word sustainability in reference to how long human ecological systems can be expected to be usefully productive. The implied preference would be for systems to be productive indefinitely, or be 'sustainable." For instance, "sustainable agriculture" would require agricultural systems expected to last indefinitely, "sustainable development" would be development of economic systems that last indefinitely, and so on. A side discourse relates the term sustainability to longevity of natural ecosystems and reserves, but the greatest emphasis has been on human systems and anthropogenic problems, such as anthropogenic climate change, or the obviously anthropogenic depletion of fossil fuel reserves. It is perhaps meaningful, and pragmatic, to speak of practices being "more sustainable" or "less sustainable." Thus energy saving compact florescent light bulbs can be considered more sustainable than incadescent ones, and so forth.

Definitions of sustainability abound, and the popularity of the term has led to competing definitions, and much confusion. One of the most oft-cited definitions of sustainability is the one created by the Brundtland Commission, led by the former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland. The Commission defined sustainable development as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Sustainability relates to the continuity of economic, social, institutional and environmental aspects of human society, as well as the non-human environment. Sustainability is one of the four Core Concepts behind the 2007 Universal Forum of Cultures.

Sustainability can be defined as: "Humanity’s investment in a system of living, projected to be viable on an ongoing basis that provides quality of life for all individuals of sentient species and conserves natural ecosystems.”

Definitions, metrics and indices

Sustainability can be defined both qualitatively in words, as an ethical/ecological proposition such as the Bruntland definition above, and quantitatively in terms of system life expectancy and the trajectory of certain factors or terms in the system. Quantitative analysis in sustainability thinking typically uses system dynamics modeling as systems are often non-linear and so-called feedback loops are key factors. So, for instance, important human ecological sub-systems that could be analyzed or modeled in this way might include the nitrogen cycle in sustainable agriculture, or the depletion of oil reserves.

In order to distinguish quantitatively and qualitatively which human economic activities are destructive and which are benign or beneficial, various definitions/models of sustainability have been developed. The following list is not exhaustive but contains the major points of view:

International Institute for Sustainable Development Sample Policy Framework

In 1996 the International Institute for Sustainable Development developed a Sample Policy Framework which proposed that a sustainability index "would give decision-makers tools to rate policies and programs against each other" (1996, p.9). Ravi Jain (2005) argued that, "The ability to analyze different alternatives or to assess progress towards sustainability will then depend on establishing measurable entities or metrics used for sustainability."

The Natural Step/System Conditions of Sustainability

Following the Brundtland Commission's report, one of the first initiatives to bring scientific principles to the assessment of sustainability was by Swedish cancer scientist Karl-Henrik Robèrt. Robèrt coordinated a consensus process to define and operationalize sustainability. At the core of the process lies a consensus on what Robèrt came to call the natural step framework. The framework is based on a definition of sustainability, described as the system conditions of sustainability (as derived from System theory). In the natural step framework, a sustainable society is one which does not systematically increase concentrations of substances extracted from the earth's crust, or substances produced by society; that does not degrade the environment and in which people have the capacity to meet their needs worldwide.

Life Cycle Assessment and Ecological Footprint Analysis

Life Cycle Assessment is a "composite measure of sustainability." It analyses the environmental performance of products and services through all phases of their life cycle: extracting and processing raw materials; manufacturing, transportation and distribution; use, re-use, maintenance; recycling, and final disposal.

Ecological footprint analysis is an estimate of the amount of land area a human population, given prevailing technology, would need if the current resource consumption and pollution by the population is matched by the sustainable (renewable) resource production and waste assimilation by such a land area. The algorithms of the ecological footprint model have, on the one hand, been used in combination with the emergy methodology (S. Zhao, Z. Li and W. Li 2005), and a sustainability index has been derived from the latter. They have also been combined with an index of quality of life (Marks et al, 2006), and the outcome christened the "(Un)Happy Planet Index" (HPI)shows indices for 178 nations. One of the striking conclusions to emerge from ecological footprint analyses is that it would be necessary to have 4 or 5 back up planets engage in nothing but agriculture for all those alive today to live a Western lifestyle.

Global Reporting Initiative

In 1997 the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) was started as a multi-stakeholder process and independent institution whose mission has been "to develop and disseminate globally applicable Sustainability Reporting Guidelines". The GRI uses ecological footprint analysis and became independent in 2002. It is an official collaborating centre of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and during the tenure of Kofi Annan, it cooperated with the UN Secretary-General’s Global Compact.

Energy, Emergy and Sustainability Index (SI)

In 1997, systems ecologists M.T.Brown and S.Ulgiati published their formulation of a quantitative sustainability index (SI) as a ratio of the emergy (spelled with an "m", i.e. "embodied energy", not simply "energy") yield ratio (EYR) to the environmental loading ratio (ELR). Brown and Ulgiati also called the sustainability index the "Emergy Sustainability Index" (ESI), "an index that accounts for yield, renewability, and environmental load. It is the incremental emergy yield compared to the environmental load".

• ${\textrm {Sustainability\ Index}}={\frac {\textrm {Emergy\ Yield\ Ratio}}{\textrm {Environmental\ Loading\ Ratio}}}={\frac {\textit {EYR}}{\textit {ELR}}}$

• NOTE: The numerator is called "emergy" and is spelled with an "m". It is an abbreviation of the term, "embodied energy". The numerator is NOT "energy yield ratio", which is a different concept.

Environmental Sustainability Index

In 2004, a joint initiative of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy (YCELP) and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) of Columbia University, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and the Directorate-General Joint Research Centre (European Commission) also attempted to construct an Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI). This was formally released in Davos, Switzerland, at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) on 28 January 2005. The report on this index made a comparison of the WEF ESI to other sustainability indicators such as the Ecological footprint Index. However there was no mention of the emergy sustainability index.

Nevertheless writers like Leone (2005) and Yi et al. have also recently suggested that the emergy sustainability index has significant utility. In particular, Leone notes that while the GRI measures behavior, it fails to calculate supply constraints which the emergy methodology aims to calculate.

Conceptual issues

Values, purpose and the focus on outcomes

Values vary greatly in detail within and between cultures, as well as between academic disciplines (e.g., between economists and ecologists). The introduction of social values to sustainability goals implies a much more complex and contentious debate, and those focused on ecological impacts tend to strongly resist non-ecological interpretations.

Some see at the heart of the concept of sustainability a fundamental, immutable value set that is best stated as 'parallel care and respect for the ecosystem and for the people within'. From this value set emerges the goal of sustainability: to achieve human and ecosystem well-being together. Seen in this way, the concept of sustainability is much more than environmental protection in another guise. It is a positive concept that has as much to do with achieving well-being for people and ecosystems as it has to do with reducing ecological stress or environmental impacts.

At its least, sustainability implies paying attention to comprehensive outcomes of events and actions insofar as they can be anticipated at present. This is known as full cost accounting, or Environmental accounting. This kind of accounting assumes that all aspects of a system can be measured and audited (Environmental audits).

Environmental accounting can be a limited biological interpretation as in ecological footprint analysis, or may include social factors as in the ICLEI—Triple Bottom Line standards for urban and community accounts.

At most, sustainability is intended as a means of configuring civilization and human activity so that society, its members and its economies are able to meet their needs and express their greatest potential in the present, while preserving biodiversity and natural ecosystems, and planning and acting for the ability to maintain these ideals in a very long term - typically at least seven generations.

None of these extended definitions, however, ever deny or downplay the importance of the ecological interpretation of sustainability as defined by the science of ecology itself. All advocates of sustainability accept that ecological, not social, factors, are the most measurable and universal indicators of sustainability.

Sustainability outcomes can be investigated at every level of organization, from the local neighborhood to the entire planet.

Common principles

Some people now consider the term "sustainable development" as too closely linked with continued material development, and prefer to use terms like "sustainability", "sustainable prosperity" and "sustainable genuine progress" as the umbrella terms. Despite differences, a number of common principles are embedded in most charters or action programmes to achieve sustainable development, sustainability or sustainable prosperity. These include (Hargroves & Smith 2005, see bibliography):

• Dealing transparently and systemically with risk, uncertainty and irreversibility.
• Ensuring appropriate valuation, appreciation and restoration of nature.
• Integration of environmental, social, human and economic goals in policies and activities.
• Equal opportunity and community participation/Sustainable community.
• Conservation of biodiversity and ecological integrity.
• Ensuring inter-generational equity.
• Recognizing the global integration of localities.
• A commitment to best practice.
• No net loss of human capital or natural capital.
• The principle of continuous improvement.
• The need for good governance.

Weak versus Strong Sustainability

However, a distinction between different 'degrees' of sustainability should be made. The debate currently focuses on the sustainability between economy and the environment which can in other words be considered as between 'natural capital' and 'manufactured/man-made capital'. This is also captured in the 'weak' versus 'strong' sustainability discussions.

Weak Sustainability is advocated by the Hartwick's Rule, which states that so long as TOTAL capital stays constant, sustainable development can be achieved. As long as the diminishing natural capital stocks are being substituted by gains in the man-made stock, total capital will stay constant and the current level of consumption can continue. The proponents believe that economic growth is beneficial as increased levels of income lead to increased levels of environmental protectionism. This is also known as the 'substitutability paradigm'.

Conversely, Strong Sustainability, as supported by Herman Daly, believe that natural capital and man-made capital are only complementary at best. In order for Sustainable Development to be achieved, natural capital has to be kept constant independently from man-made capital. This is known as the 'non-substitutability paradigm'.

Population growth and Consumption

One of the critical issues in sustainability is that of human overpopulation combined with current lifestyle patterns. A number of studies have suggested that the current population of the Earth, already over six billion, is too many people to support sustainably. at current material consumption levels, this challenge for sustainability is distributed unevenly. According to calculations of the ecological footprint, the ecological pressure of a US resident is 12 times that of a resident of India and 24 times that of a Somali resident.

With the world population continuing to grow, there is increasing pressure on arable land, water, energy, and biological resources to provide enough food while while supporting viable ecosystems. World Bank and United Nations studies, show that there are over 1 billion people who are malnourished. This is due to a combination of lack of food, low incomes, and poor food distribution. The world population is projected to grow from over 6 billion to as high as 10.6 billion within the next 50 years (UN Population Division, 2006). With expanding population, the food problem will worsen.

Critics of efforts to reduce population rather than consumption fear that efforts to reduce population growth may lead to human rights violations such as involuntary sterilization and the abandoning of infants to die. Some human-rights watchers report that this is already taking place in China, as a result of its one child per family policy.

Albeit, it appears inevitable^{[citation needed]} that human population numbers will be constrained and brought into some form of equilibrium by the Malthusian limit and in accordance with the Lotka-Volterra equation. In his book Collapse, author Jared Diamond presents several societies where population growth mixed with unsustainable consumption levels have led to collapses in population numbers.

Sustainability and business

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, founded in 1995, has formulated the business case for sustainable development and argues that "sustainable development is good for business and business is good for sustainable development". This view is also maintained by proponents of the concept of industrial ecology. The theory of industrial ecology declares that industry should be viewed as a series of interlocking man-made ecosystems interfacing with the natural global ecosystem.

According to some economists, it is possible for the concepts of sustainable development and competitiveness to merge if enacted wisely, so that there is not an inevitable trade-off. This merger is being motivated by the following six facts (Hargroves & Smith 2005):

1. Throughout the economy there are widespread untapped potential resource productivity improvements to be made to be coupled with effective design.
2. There has been a significant shift in understanding over the last three decades of what creates lasting competitiveness of a firm.
3. There is now a critical mass of enabling technologies in eco-innovations that make integrated approaches to sustainable development economically viable.
4. Since many of the costs of what economists call ‘environmental externalities’ are passed on to governments, in the long-term sustainable development strategies can provide multiple benefits to the tax payer.
5. There is a growing understanding of the multiple benefits of valuing social and natural capital, for both moral and economic reasons, and including them in measures of national well-being.
6. There is mounting evidence to show that a transition to a sustainable economy, if done wisely, may not harm economic growth significantly, in fact it could even help it. Recent research by ex-Wuppertal Institute member Joachim Spangenberg, working with neo-classical economists, shows that the transition, if focused on improving resource productivity, will lead to higher economic growth than business as usual, while at the same time reducing pressures on the environment and enhancing employment.

It is an unresolved question as to whether all of the attempts at definitions have anything to do with the compound constructs of sustainability investment advanced by network economics and systemic entrepreneurs.

However, as late as fall 2006 the Stern Report estimated that 1% of GDP will now need to be invested to save 20% of GDP, because of failures to date by most global market sectors to integrate sustainability in the metrics they have governed with.

Barriers to a sustainability culture

Acknowledging the barriers to sustainability, numerous publications from the Tellus Institute examine the factors necessary to achieve an environmentally sustainable future, something Tellus terms a ‘Great Transition’ (see Raskin et al, 2002; Rajan, 2006; Kreigman, 2006). Using scenario analysis, Tellus shows that a new sustainability paradigm is possible if progressive elements of civil society, government, business, and an engaged citizenry work together to create an alternative vision of globalization centered on the quality of life, human solidarity, environmental resilience, and shared information.

The phenomenon of change resistance

The above concepts focus primarily on the proper practices required to live sustainably. However, there is also the need to consider why there is such strong resistance to adopting sustainable practices.

Unruh (2000, 2002) has argued that numerous barriers to sustainability arise because today's technological systems and governing institutions were designed and built for permanence and reliability, not change. In the case of fossil fuel-based systems this is termed "carbon lock-in" and inhibits many change efforts.

Thwink.org argues that if enough members of the environmental movement adopted a problem solving process that fit the problem, the movement would make the astonishing discovery that the crux of the problem is not what it thought it was. It is not the proper practices or technical side of the problem after all. Any number of these practices would be adequate. Instead the real issue is why is it so difficult to persuade social agents (such as people, corporations, and nations) to adopt the proper practices needed to live sustainably? Thus the heart of the matter is the change resistance or social side of the problem.

Barriers to ecological sustainability

Despite the now overwhelming evidence that the human species is set on a population adjustment course of immense proportions, and despite long-standing and widespread public awareness of the seriousness of the consequence (e.g., Nelson, 1986; Yankelovitch, et al., 1983; Diamond, Jared (2005) ), it seems impossible to alter the course of our destiny.

This is generally attributed to “change resistance” (see, e.g., Thwink.org), viewed as involving change in individual values, whether at personal, corporate, or collective levels (see e.g., Stafford Beer). Unfortunately, it has been frequently demonstrated, e.g., in the studies cited, that people’s values are, in general, in the right place. The problem is to enact them. This has led to the preparation of numerous “wish lists”—such as that compiled by Shah, H., & Marks, N. (2004)—drawing together many recommendations for government action.

Government and individual failure to act on the available information is widely attributed to personal greed (deemed to be inherent in human nature) especially on the part of international capitalists. But even Karl Marx did not suggest this, instead highlighting sociological processes which have been in operation for thousands of years. If fault is to be found with Marx's work it can be argued that it lies elsewhere. Because he believed that the collapse of capitalism was imminent, he never discussed how to run society in an innovative way in the long term public interest.

Two things seem to follow from this brief discussion.

1. It is vital to follow up the study of the sociocybernetic, or systems (see also systems theory), processes which, it seems, primarily control what happens in society.
2. We should use the social-science-based insights already available to evolve forms of Public management that will act on information in an innovative way in the long term public interest.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• ^ Leone, M. (2005). The Quest for an Environmental Metric: Gazing at weather systems, a ground-breaking scientist spawned an ecological accounting standard that Wall Street might one day embrace. CFO Publishing.
• ^ Maine, T. (2003). Towards a Metric of Sustainability. CSIRO Publishing.
• ^ Brown, M.T. and Ulgiati, S. (1997). Emergy-based indices and ratios to evaluate sustainability: monitoring economies and technology toward environmentally sound innovation. Ecological Engineering 9: 51-69.
• ^ Brown, M.T. and Ulgiati, S. (1999). Emergy Evaluation of the Biosphere and Natural Capital. Ambio 28 (6).
• ^ Zhao, S.; Li, Z.; Li, W. (2005). A modified method of ecological footprint calculation and its application. Ecological Modelling 185 (1): 65-75. Digital object identifier (DOI): 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2004.11.016.
• ^ Yi, Heui-seok; Hau, Jorge L. ; Ukidwe, Nandan U. and Bakshi, Bhavik R. (2004). Hierarchical Thermodynamic Metrics for Evaluating the Environmental Sustainability of Industrial Processes. Environmental Progress 23 (4): 65-75. Digital object identifier (DOI): 10.1002/ep.10049.
• ^ Jain, R. (2005). Sustainability: metrics, specific indicators and preference index. Clean Techn Environ Policy 7: 71-72.

External links and resources

• Nobel Prize for Sustainable Development - International initiative for a Nobel Prize for Sustainable Development
• Appropedia - a Wiki focused on sustainable international development and poverty reduction
• Sustainable Development in Amazonia
• International Institute for Sustainable Development International non-profit organization for sustainable development.

Template:Energy related development

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