Sustainable Development (SD) is an emerging concept that has evolved over several years and has become the cornerstone of today’s development. This seemingly simple term, “sustainable development” was popularized by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in a report entitled “Our Common Future” in 1987. Back then, Sustainable Development was defined as ‘satisfying the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. However, there is no universal definition of the concept and perhaps there is no need for one. Sustainable Development concerns a process of dynamism and change, it is relatively new and continues to evolve as we gradually learn to grasp its wide repercussions …show more content…
Numbers speak louder than words – according to some estimates, energy consumption in developed countries is about 12 times higher than that of developing countries. The three major economic sectors in terms of energy consumption are manufacturing (33%), households (29%) and transport (26%). This should leave us with the terrifying thought that we as household consumers greatly contribute to the high levels of energy consumption and resource depletion. Electricity and heat generation account for over 40% of all CO2 emissions which has recorded a 66% increase (2008) since 1992, but the world population demonstrated some 25% increase over the same period. The causes may vary from today’s heavier industrial production to better standards of living in developed countries. Interestingly enough, though, this generous consumption level left some 1.44 billion people in “energy poverty” in 2010. This accounts for 20% of the world’s population – isn’t this staggering? These people do not have access to steady and reliable electricity or the power grid, and they are entirely dependent on biomass for cooking and lighting. We live in a world of thousands ties over thousands of miles yet if we take a look at the patterns of lights visible from space (a link to map is provided in bibliography), the “electric or digital gap” between the North and the South will be apparent. Almost the whole African continent, with some few exceptions, remains in dark when viewed from a distance. The brightest areas are usually the highly urbanized locations but not necessarily highly populated. In contrast, India and China still remain in complete
Sustainable development is a recent concept that has become important for a wide range of people and industries. Sustainable Development involves maintaining the current rate of development leaving suitable resources behind for later generations to continue to develop.
The concept of sustainable development, a relatively new concept has now taken action into the structure of many present day organizations. Identified as “green growth”, the formation of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index provides a platform for managers to understand what it takes to be a sustainable organization. On the subject of sustainable development, the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) sponsored by the United Nations published a report defining as,“Development that meets the needs of the current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs and aspirations” (WCED, 1987). Sustainable development is composed of the following two notions. First is the idea of sustainability (to maintain), and secondly, development (to make better) (Bell, 2003). Improvement of our own lives today does not mean at the cost of damaging the quality of
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs” (Sassi, 2006).
Sustainable development as a theory was first defined in the Brundtland report (also known as Our Common Future) in 1987. The report was the work of the United Nations...
According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, sustainable development is defined as development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. If we follow this definition, it becomes easy to see that the vast majority of the “developed” world has not, and is not developing sustainably. The idea of sustainable development requires us to consider how our action of developing will affect other countries, and future generations. Many people believe in “the butterfly effect”, where the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in one part of t...
Legal structure is one of the most important parts of the current society and nation that help the authorities and people to follow the determined path in achieving a specific target. Moreover, in the current environment, it is important for the authorities and nations to highlight and implement strict environmental policies in their respective countries in order to reduce the increasing environmental issues in the world.
What is sustainability? There is a Native American (n.d.) proverb which says: ‘When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money’. Defining sustainability is a challenge itself, achieving it is even more arduous but what it is certain is the consequence of not acting sustainable. For too long the main goal of western countries has been profit, ignoring the extended list of benefits deriving from acting sustainable. The sustainability topic offers a wide range of arguments to discuss but in this paper only few of them are reviewed. Firstly, the 'three-legged stool ' model as a way of conceptualizing sustainability and its stability will be
Sustainability is a concept with a diverse array of meanings and definitions – a widely used glamorous, ambiguous, ambivalent and vague concept that is used by different stakeholder groups in various ways. Presumably to avoid noodling over a terminology or to avoid the confrontation with a definition, most widely the concept is broken down a planning process (c.f. e.g. Döring & Muraca, 2010). That is why most common sustainability is understood as sustainable development.1
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
Sustainability and sustainable development is about ensuring a better quality of life for people today and the generations to come, this requires the meeting of four key objectives (Bani. 2007).
Sustainable development is, in its simplest the survival of the planet Earth. Sustainable development meets the demands of today’s society without limiting the ability of future generations to meet their own demands. First, the basic needs of the world...
Sustainability simply defined to me as balancing act between the development of sustainability is necessary for both planet Earth and humans to survive. This is reinforced in the World Commission on Environment and Development report (1987) that sustainable development must meet the needs of the present without compromising the well-being of future generations”. The Earth Charter Organization widened the idea of sustainability to respect for a culture of peace, universal human rights, nature, and economic justice (What is sustainability?, n.d.).
Sustainable development means that the present generations should be able to make use of resources to live better lives in such a manner that it doesn’t compromise the ability of future generations to survive and make better lives for themselves as well. For sustainable development to occur, there needs to be sustainable economic, ecological and community development. Society needs to be educated about ways in which they can use resources, especially natural, in such a manner that it doesn’t cause harm to the environment and put future generations lives at risk.
Sustainable development refers to not only meet the needs of contemporary people, but also not compromising the ability of future generations to meet development needs.Sustainable development and environmental protection have established contact, not the same. Environmental protection is an important aspect of sustainable development. The core of sustainable development is development, but requires strict control of the population, improve population quality and protect the environment for the conduct of economic and social development under the premise of sustainable use of resources.
In class we discussed what sustainable development meant to us; each group had its own definition. Our group’s definition was that sustainable development is for the long term for future generations, for the basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, and job. The basic will increase over time and our resources will diminish, which why sustainable development is important. Sustainable development is important for future generations so that they end up with a world better than ours. Sustainable development is achievable if society works together to meet everyone’s basic needs and create a better world.