The United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development defined sustainable development as: “Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED,1987). Now that the Earth has reached the limits of its biophysical carrying capacity, we have to change technologies, social practices and social norms relating to material production and consumption to ensure that we do not further jeopardize the functioning of our planet’s life support systems (Konig, 2013).
The concept of sustainability is the process that we optional to improve the quality of human life within the limitations of the global environment (Mensah & Castro,
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This has led to the concept of “weak” and “strong” sustainable development, which related to the degree to man-made and natural forms of capital can be substituted for one another. Man-made capital refers to cities, technology; natural capital for instance clean water; human capital such as our knowledge (Mensah & Castro, 2004). So natural capital in “weak sustainability” may be used and run down as long as investment is being made in other types of capital. In another words, man-made capital used early stage development increases human knowledge and technology so there is an optimal substitution of resources which leads to sustainable economic growth (Mensah & Castro, 2004). This is based on the fact that during the early development stages, natural resources are exploited, the environment is degraded, and income increases. “Strong sustainability” is the opposite view means people cannot substitute natural capital by other types of capital; thus we cannot run down our environment assets (Mensah & Castro, …show more content…
What is triple bottom line? It is an accounting framework that include social, environmental and financial. But TBL also commonly refers to people, planet and profits three Ps concepts, which can be an important tool to support sustainability goals (Elkington, 1994). By measuring the impact of organization’s activities from shareholder values, its profitability, human, social and environment, Triple Bottom Lime can be able to evaluate the business or organization’s sustainable development (Slaper & Hall). There is only a universally accepted Standard for the measurements of Triple Bottom Line, which the user can use it to adapt the general framework to the needs of different projects, polices or geographic boundaries like cities (Slaper & Hall). Additionally, Triple Bottom Line can help to adapt the differences between the way that government or business gauge environment sustainability and local community (Elkington, 1994). There are three main tradition measures that can be used for assessing sustainability at national levels based on three TBL categories: economic measures, environmental measures and social measures. Economic measures should look at the employment, income and taxes etc. Environmental measures Also, the concept of this triple bottom line can be used for regional level by communities
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.
Generational conflicts, political strife, environmental regulations, stakeholders in big oil, and many more hurdles affect the push to fully sustainable economies around the world and even here in America. In a world where coal, oil, and natural gas are limited, countries are gobbling it all up as fast as they can before other poorer countries come on the grid. Even though America and other countries gobble up these resources the life of the people is still a struggle to meet basic needs. Sustainability is an intermingling of resource use and protection of the “quality of life”, it is met by using resources sparingly and by recycling or reducing the use of other non-renewable resources to provide for our immediate need, but also to conserve and protect the needs of the next generation and to improve the quality of all the lives to come.
Sustainability is the ability to be sustained, supported, upheld or confirmed. According to UN (2014), “sustainability is the procedure of development which assists the future generation ability to meet their needs with present needs. The utmost practice of sustainability is in relation to sustainability development. Sustainable development is a forming standard for human life on a determinate world (d.n, 2014).
Sustainability is broadly characterized as addressing the present generation’s needs without jeopardizing the future generations to address their own issues. Sustainable procedures are those that outcome from an establishment's commitment to environmental, social and economic, or the "triple bottom line." The term "sustainability," is the advancement of a procedure or management framework that serves to maintain economy and high standard of life while regarding the need to maintain natural resources and secure the nature.
Sustainability, as an issue, has been the subject of widespread debate for ages now. While some people cannot associate themselves with the concept, others are too agnostic about the implementation of practices which can result in a win-win scenario for all. Another subset even wonders if the practices itself are sustainable or not. Such different views helps little to achieve the objective, when it is itself difficult to begin with.
Sustainable development adapted after the Brundtlandt Report 1987, is a planned, aim- and process oriented procedure that meets the needs of today’s generations without endangering the needs of future generations and world regions (Ott & Döring 2004, 2006).2 The principle of sustainability describes the efforts of the international community, all countries and people to create equal opportunities for development by explicitly taking into account the interests of future generations. Most frequently the concepts of sustainability are based on a triple bottom line represented by the tree pillars – ecology, economy and social security (e.g. by the Enquete Commission, 1998). Apart from the general weaknesses of the column model that is the interchangeability of dimensions and the ignorance of (social) relatedness (c.f. Ott & Döring, 2004)3 the definition of sustainability (the model is illustrating), is seen as a bad compromise between the needs for conservation of natural resources and the aspirations for economic growth by some scholars (Döring & Muraca, 2010). Irrespective of that, the model sometimes is competed by other pillars such as “knowledge”, “institution”, ”governance”, “arts” or the like (c.f. a.o. Ott & Döring, 2004). Whereas in “Resetting the Compas...
“Sustainable Development: At its heart, sustainable development is the simple idea of ensuring a good quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come. It is about living within the carrying capacity of the environment so that how we live, work and enjoy leisure activities, which do not harm or put undue pressures on the environment. It is about ensuring everyone has the opportunity to have a decent education, a quality environment that they take pride in, good health and a decent job (n.p, 2014)”
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...
The first is to encourage economic growth and sustainable development. It emphasizes the need for economic growth, the need to improve the level of contemporary human welfare through economic growth, enhance national strength and social wealth. However, sustainable development should not only pay attention to the amount of economic growth, but also to the pursuit of quality of economic growth. That is economic development, including growth in the number and quality improvement in two parts. Growth in the number is limited, and rely on scientific and technological progress and improving the effectiveness of economic activity and quality, adopt a scientific mode of economic growth is sustainable. Flag of sustainable development is the sustainable use of resources and good ecological environment. Economic and social development can not exceed the carrying capacity of resources and the
Humans have become a threat to our own way of life by consuming more resources than needed, blind to the consequences that we may face in the future. As of 2016 the world population is at 7.4 billion and it is estimated to be at 11.2 billion by the year 2100. However 10 billion is the maximum population that can be sustained in terms of food security, only one of the many factors to global sustainability. Due to the fact that human consumption exceeds the amount of resources available, the United Nations “recognizes that eradicating poverty is the greatest global challenge” in A/RES/70/1. Sustainable development is not only required to fulfill the necessities of the present but to guarantee the capability for future generations to satisfy theirs.
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.
Environmental sustainability is making decisions and taking actions in the interest of protecting the natural world, preserving the capability of the environment to support human life and ensuring that humans use the environment in a way that does not harm the environment. It also questions how economic development affects our environment vice versa.
‘Development that meets the needs of the present with the ability for the future generation to meet their own needs.’ (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987) Sustainable development requires three key components: economy, society and environment, sustainable development can be success through striking balance in those factors. These three components are indispensible, they compel to depend on each other. On the other words, we can only gain a decent and energetic environment and society if the economy is strong with a healthy a stable growth rate.
There is no better example of humans’ relationship to nature than idea of sustainable development. It is imperative that we develop in a sustainable manner if we wish to live in harmony with nature. Unfortunately, we have been developing in the opposite direction. For many years the west has been able to get away with using more than their fair share of resources because the less developed nations don’t have the technology to utilize these resources for themselves. If this trend continues it poses a serious problem to global sustainability. Rapid development in nations like India and China have pushed their resource consumption levels up, closing the gap between third and first world. With such a high rate of consumption in the developed countries, there is not much room for the third world to develop without depleting our resources to unsustainable levels. The entire world cannot live the same wasteful life enjoyed by the many developed countries. If nothing is done, the south will catch up to the western level of consumption and we will no longer be able to sustain life for generations to come. After researching this issue it is apparent that the best solution is to develop the west to a level of sustainability that is universally applicable and allows the less developed nations to eventually live the same lifestyle as the west without compromising the livelihood of future generations. This essay will go on to explain how the western way of life is not a viable option for everyone to live by and how developing nations are in fact already following the path of these western nations.
• Environmental sustainability: the ability of the environment to support a defined level of environmental quality and natural resource extraction rates indefinitely. This is the most problematic