Sustainable Development Today
Sustainable Development
The concept of sustainable development has become a major topic among intellectuals from various fields. Sustainable development has gone through various changes in its definitions and at present does not have a commonly accepted definition. The origination of the concept of sustainable development is debatable. In 1974 at a conference on Science and Technology for Human Development by the World Council of Churches the concept of a “sustainable society” is believed to have been first noted. This early concept focused on equitable distribution of scarce resources and the need for democratic decision making. In 1980 the currently used term of sustainable development emerged in the World Conservation Strategy of 1980. It was defined as “the integration of conservation and development to ensure that modifications to the planet do indeed secure that survival and well-being of all people.” Many problems were found with this report because it was written by environmentalists and did not focus on the political and economic changes needed. It appeared to be not practical to many including politicians and economists (Dresner 30-31).
In 1987 the World Commission on the Environment and Development published a report titled Our Common Future, often called the Brundtland Report, that defined sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Edwards 4). This report and its definition also stressed the connection between a healthy environment, equity, and the economy. If we want a change in any of these issues we would also have to work on the other two simultaneously. These thre...
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...has issues but will develop more support as it is further understood. The need to adopt sustainable methods will eventually become apparent as we face environmental, economic, and social problems. People will realize its importance for our survival.
Works Cited:
Beckerman, Wilfred. A Poverty of Reason: Sustainable Development and Economic Growth. Oakland, CA: The Independent Institute, 2003.
Dresner, Simon. The Principles of Sustainability . Sterling, VA: Earthscan, 2002.
Edwards, Andres R. The Sustainability Revolution. Gabriola Island, Canada: New Society Publishers, 2005.
Hecox, Walt. Various Lectures. 24 April-12 May 2006.
Parkin, Michael. Microeconomics United States of America: Pearson Addison-Wesley, 2005, 7th edition.
“Earth in Danger, Study Says.” The Gazette 31 March 2005.
“Humans May Be Killing Off Nature.” The Gazette 19 March 2004.
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9. Smith’s report defines sustainable development as, “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Smith’s definition is important to consider, because it illustrates that that we do not have to destroy the natural environment to have economic progress.
The following case study critiques Upton’s vision to establish a sustainable community through implementing comprehensive sustainable strategy. The urban periphery development is thought to demonstrate superior execution of sustainable principles in development (Jackson 2007). As a parallel, the report focuses on the development of Upton’s design code and demonstrates how large -scale mix-use developments can incorporate sustainable practice and principles of urban growth.
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
The world is turning a new page in some truly profound ways, and I believe that investors are starting to catch on (which is a good thing). These world financial giants are starting to notice the importance of environmental and social issues, and the reason they are catching on is due to the potential long-term investments and growth it provides these companies and long term investors. Let me remind you what we already know. There are currently 7 billion people on Earth today and because of our innovation in modern medicine that number will grow to about 10 billion people by the end of this century. We are consuming irreplaceable natural resources, and from those resources we use, namely oil, we are creating an unhealthy dose of landfill and
The economy and technology of late decades has grown with leaps and bounds. Mobile phone, Internet reduce the space and time between human beings. The globe is getting smaller, the way of people thinking is changing which means the whole society is experiencing a profound evolution. However, in this information explosion age, human society has to face unprecedented crisis- The gradual depletion of global natural resources and the sharply deteriorated of human’s living environment. People begin to have a strong feeling of losing control of these crisis. Therefore, sustainable development is being highly regarded.
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...
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
Hello, in this speech I want to talk about the term "sustainable development" and what it means for me and for the world. For me, sustainable development is a new way for the world to improve its present and have more options for a good future. This method, which most countries have begun to use to fight against the ecological problems on the planet, is of great importance to maintain many things that exist on the planet today, like many animals or plants. In addition, this plan will improve people's living standards, in addition to helping with social problems and the daily lives of many people, such as education and work, also help poor people with better living conditions. Now I want to explain, from my point of view and based on the information
decrease. That means that the natural capital (oil, coal, forests, etc.) can decrease as long as the sum of physical (produced means of production; technology) and human (people’s
After going through a careful consideration of my familiarity with a number of multinational corporations that I selected earlier, I chose Henkel (Henkel AG & Company, KGaA), a manufacturing company headquartered in Germany, to be the corporation that I am going to analyze in depth. Size wise, “the company has some 47,000 employees worldwide and counts among the most internationally aligned German-based companies in the global marketplace.” (Henkel, 2014) Aside from having a broad employee base and solidly built financial resources, it also has branches scattered all over the world, including Hong Kong. Business wise, Henkel chiefly runs in three areas. They are household products, personal care products, adhesives that can be found easily at any local supermarket or grocery store.
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.
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.
There are different approaches in sustainable development. Diesendorf (2000) had illustrated that the goal or destination of sustainable development was the tight relationship between sustainabi...