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Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable living). Sustainability is commonly described as having three dimensions (also called pillars): environmental, economic, and social. Many publications state that the environmental dimension (also called "
planetary integrity Planetary boundaries is a concept highlighting human-caused perturbations of Earth systems making them relevant in a way not accommodated by the environmental boundaries separating the three ages within the Holocene epoch. Crossing a planetary ...
" or "ecological integrity") is the most important, and, in everyday usage, "sustainability" is often focused on countering major environmental problems, such as
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
,
loss of biodiversity Biodiversity loss includes the worldwide extinction of different species, as well as the local reduction or loss of species in a certain habitat, resulting in a loss of biological diversity. The latter phenomenon can be temporary or permanent, de ...
, loss of
ecosystem service Ecosystem services are the many and varied benefits to humans provided by the natural environment and healthy ecosystems. Such ecosystems include, for example, agroecosystems, forest ecosystem, grassland ecosystems, and aquatic ecosystems. ...
s,
land degradation Land degradation is a process in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by a combination of human-induced processes acting upon the land. It is viewed as any change or disturbance to the land perceived to be deleterious o ...
, and
air The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...
and
water pollution Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. ...
. Humanity is now exceeding several "
planetary boundaries Planetary boundaries is a concept highlighting human-caused perturbations of Earth systems making them relevant in a way not accommodated by the environmental boundaries separating the three ages within the Holocene epoch. Crossing a planetary ...
". A closely related concept is that of sustainable development, and the terms are often used synonymously. However,
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
distinguishes the two thus: "''Sustainability'' is often thought of as a long-term goal (i.e. a more sustainable world), while ''sustainable development'' refers to the many processes and pathways to achieve it." The concept of sustainability has been criticized for various reasons. One such criticism is that the concept is vague and merely a buzzword. Another is that sustainability as a goal might be impossible to reach; it has been pointed out that "no country is delivering what its citizens need without transgressing the biophysical planetary boundaries". How the economic dimension of sustainability should be addressed is controversial. Scholars have discussed this aspect under the concept of "
weak and strong sustainability Although related, sustainable development and sustainability are two different concepts. ''Weak sustainability'' is an idea within environmental economics which states that 'human capital' can substitute 'natural capital'. It is based upon the wo ...
". For example, there will always be tension between the ideas of "welfare and prosperity for all" and
environmental conservation *Environmental protection *Nature conservation Nature conservation is the moral philosophy and conservation movement focused on protecting species from extinction, maintaining and restoring habitats, enhancing ecosystem services, and protec ...
. Therefore,
trade-off A trade-off (or tradeoff) is a situational decision that involves diminishing or losing one quality, quantity, or property of a set or design in return for gains in other aspects. In simple terms, a tradeoff is where one thing increases, and anot ...
s are required. Approaches that decouple economic growth from environmental deterioration would be desirable but are difficult to implement. There are many barriers to achieving sustainability that must be addressed for a "sustainability transition" to become possible. Some barriers arise from nature and its complexity. Other barriers are "extrinsic" to the concept of sustainability. A number of extrinsic sustainability barriers are related to the dominant institutional frameworks where market mechanisms often fail to create
public goods In economics, a public good (also referred to as a social good or collective good)Oakland, W. H. (1987). Theory of public goods. In Handbook of public economics (Vol. 2, pp. 485-535). Elsevier. is a good that is both non-excludable and non-riv ...
. Some approaches humanity can take to transition to environmental sustainability include: maintaining
ecosystem service Ecosystem services are the many and varied benefits to humans provided by the natural environment and healthy ecosystems. Such ecosystems include, for example, agroecosystems, forest ecosystem, grassland ecosystems, and aquatic ecosystems. ...
s, reducing
food waste Food loss and waste is food that is not eaten. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous and occur throughout the food system, during production, processing, distribution, retail and food service sales, and consumption. Overall, about o ...
, promoting
dietary In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. The word diet often implies the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management reasons (with the two often being related). Although humans are o ...
shifts towards plant-based foods, reducing fertility rates and, thus, population growth, promoting new green technologies, and adopting renewable energy sources while phasing out subsidies to energy production through fossil fuels. Global issues are difficult to tackle as they require global solutions, and existing global organizations (such as the UN and
WTO The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...
) are inefficient in enforcing current global regulations, for example due to the lack of suitable sanctioning mechanisms.


Definitions


Current usage

Sustainability is regarded as a " normative concept". This can be illustrated as follows: "The quest for sustainability involves connecting what is known through scientific study to applications in pursuit of what people want for the future". Modern use of the term "sustainability" was strongly influenced by the 1983 UN Commission on Environment and Development, also known as the
Brundtland Commission The Brundtland Commission, formerly the World Commission on Environment and Development, was a sub-organization of the United Nations (UN) that aimed to unite countries in pursuit of sustainable development. It was founded in 1983 when Javier Pé ...
. In the commission's 1987 report, titled ''
Our Common Future __NOTOC__ ''Our Common Future'', also known as the Brundtland Report, was published on October 1987 by the United Nations through the Oxford University Press. This publication was in recognition of Gro Harlem Brundtland's, former Norwegian Prime M ...
'' (also known as the Brundtland Report), sustainable development is defined as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations Future generations are cohorts of hypothetical people not yet born. Future generations are contrasted with current and past generations, and evoked in order to encourage thinking about intergenerational equity. The moral patienthood of future g ...
to meet their own needs."United Nations General Assembly (1987
''Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future''
Transmitted to the General Assembly as an Annex to document A/42/427 – Development and International Co-operation: Environment.
The report helped bring "sustainability" into the mainstream of policy discourse and popularize the concept of "sustainable development". Text was copied from this source, which is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
/ref> Key concepts to illustrate the meaning of sustainability include: choices matter (in other words: "it is not possible to sustain everything, everywhere, forever"); sustainability is a normative concept (connected to "what we see as desirable"); sustainability can be positively thought of as a
fuzzy concept A fuzzy concept is a kind of concept of which the boundaries of application can vary considerably according to context or conditions, instead of being fixed once and for all. This means the concept is vague in some way, lacking a fixed, precise me ...
(where the goals are more important than the approaches or means applied); scale matters, in both space and time; place matters; systems thinking is an organizing concept; limits exist (see
planetary boundaries Planetary boundaries is a concept highlighting human-caused perturbations of Earth systems making them relevant in a way not accommodated by the environmental boundaries separating the three ages within the Holocene epoch. Crossing a planetary ...
); sustainability is interconnected with other essential concepts (namely resilience, adaptive capacity, and
vulnerability Vulnerability refers to "the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally." A window of vulnerability (WOV) is a time frame within which defensive measures are diminished, com ...
); and change is an essential consideration and challenge for sustainability. In everyday usage, "sustainability" is often focused mostly on the environmental aspects, as can be seen in publications by the
United Nations Environment Programme The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on th ...
(UNEP).


Specific definitions

Scholars have pointed out that a single specific definition of sustainability may never be possible but that the concept is still useful. Attempts have been made to define sustainability broadly or in more specific terms, for example: * "Sustainability can be defined as the capacity to maintain or improve the state and availability of desirable materials or conditions over the long term". * "Sustainability sthe long-term viability of a community, set of social institutions, or societal practice. In general, sustainability is understood as a form of intergenerational ethics in which the environmental and economic actions taken by present persons do not diminish the opportunities of future persons to enjoy similar levels of wealth, utility, or welfare." * "Sustainability means meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In addition to natural resources, we also need social and economic resources. Sustainability is not just environmentalism. Embedded in most definitions of sustainability we also find concerns for social equity and economic development." Some definitions refer mainly to the environmental dimension. For example, the '' Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines sustainability as: "the property of being environmentally sustainable; the degree to which a process or enterprise is able to be maintained or continued while avoiding the long-term depletion of natural resources".


Historical usage

The term sustainability is derived from the
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
word ''sustinere'' (''tenere'', to hold; ''sub'', under). "To sustain" can mean to maintain, support, uphold, or endure. It is therefore the ability to continue over a long period of time. Historically, sustainability referred to environmental sustainability and simply meant using natural resources in a way so that people in the future ("future generations") could continue to rely on their yields in the long term.Compare: The English-language word had a legal technical sense from 1835 and a resource-management connotation from 1953. The concept of sustainability, or ''Nachhaltigkeit'' in German, can be traced back to Hans Carl von Carlowitz (1645–1714), and was applied to
forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. ...
(now sustainable forest management). He used this term in the sense of long-term responsible use of a
natural resource Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. ...
in 1713 in his work ''Silvicultura oeconomica''. The idea itself goes back to times immemorial, as communities have always worried about the capacity of their environment to sustain them in the long term. Many ancient cultures, traditional societies, and
indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
had or still have practices restricting the use of natural resources by human groups.


Comparison to sustainable development

The terms "sustainability" and "sustainable development" are closely related and are often used synonymously. Both terms are intrinsically linked with the "three dimensions of sustainability" concept. One distinction that can be made is that sustainability is a general concept, whereas sustainable development is a policy. Sustainability can be considered a broader concept than sustainable development because the latter focuses mainly on human well-being.


Dimensions of sustainability


Development of three dimensions

Three different areas of sustainability are normally distinguished: the environmental, the social, and the economic. Several terms are in use for this concept in the literature: authors may speak of three "pillars", "dimensions", "components", "aspects", "perspectives", "factors", or "goals", but all mean the same thing in this context. The emergence of the three dimensions paradigm has few theoretical foundations but gradually emerged without a single point of origin. Nevertheless, the distinction itself is rarely questioned, and the "three dimension" conception of sustainability is a dominant interpretation within the literature. The Brundtland Report from 1987 stated that the environment and development are inseparable when trying to achieve sustainability. It also stated that sustainable development is a global concept that links environmental and social issues and is equally important for
developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...
and industrialized countries: Furthermore,
Agenda 21 Agenda 21 is a non-binding action plan of the United Nations with regard to sustainable development. It is a product of the Earth Summit (UN Conference on Environment and Development) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. It is an action age ...
from 1992 explicitly talks about economic, social, and environmental dimensions as follows: Agenda 2030 conceived the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with their 169 targets as balancing "the three dimensions of sustainable development, the economic, social and environmental".United Nations (2015) Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015, Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
A/RES/70/1
)


Discussion about hierarchy

There are scholarly discussions regarding a possible hierarchy of the three dimensions of sustainability: Many publications state that the environmental dimension (also referred to as
planetary integrity Planetary boundaries is a concept highlighting human-caused perturbations of Earth systems making them relevant in a way not accommodated by the environmental boundaries separating the three ages within the Holocene epoch. Crossing a planetary ...
or ecological integrity) should be viewed as the most important. Text was copied from this source, which is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
/ref> For example, an assessment of the political impacts of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2022 stated that the integrity of the earth's life-support systems must be maintained for long-term sustainability. The authors criticized that the SDGs "fail to recognize that planetary, people and prosperity concerns are all part of one earth system, and that the protection of planetary integrity should not be a means to an end, but an end in itself". The fact that the SDGs do not prioritize environmental protection is problematic as this could incentivize countries to further subordinate environmental priorities in their developmental plans. The authors state that "sustainability on a planetary scale is only achievable under an overarching Planetary Integrity Goal that recognizes the biophysical limits of the planet". The protection of ecological integrity (or environmental sustainability) can be seen as the core of sustainability. In pursuing the protection of ecological integrity, sustainability reflects the most basic concern of human existence, namely the desire to live, survive, and reproduce. Consequently, if the preservation of the Earth's ecological integrity is the prerequisite for development, it sets limits to both economic and social development. The nested ellipses diagram of the three dimensions of sustainability also gives the environmental dimension a special status: it implies a situation where society is embedded in the environment, and economic conditions are embedded in society. It therefore stresses a hierarchy. A similar depiction of the three dimensions or systems is the "SDG wedding cake" model by the
Stockholm Environment Institute The Stockholm Environment Institute, or SEI, is a non-profit, independent research and policy institute specialising in sustainable development and environmental issues, with seven affiliate offices around the world. SEI works on climate change ...
where the economy is a smaller subset of the societal system that in turn is a smaller subset of the
biosphere The biosphere (from Greek βίος ''bíos'' "life" and σφαῖρα ''sphaira'' "sphere"), also known as the ecosphere (from Greek οἶκος ''oîkos'' "environment" and σφαῖρα), is the worldwide sum of all ecosystems. It can also ...
system which all life depends on.


Environmental sustainability

Increasing environmental pollution in the 1960s and 1970s led to growing environmental concerns, evidenced by Rachel Carson's book ''
Silent Spring ''Silent Spring'' is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. Published on September 27, 1962, the book documented the environmental harm caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading d ...
'' in 1962, establishment of the Club of Rome in 1968, and establishment of Greenpeace in 1971. Awareness of pollution provided the basis for what was later discussed as sustainability and sustainable development. This process began with concern for environmental issues (natural
ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...
s or
natural resource Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. ...
s and human environment) in the 1970s, and was later extended to all the systems that support life on Earth (including human society). Reducing these negative impacts on the environment would improve environmental sustainability. While
environmental pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, th ...
is not a new phenomenon, it remained a local or regional concern for most of human history. This changed in the 20th century, when awareness of global environmental issues increased. The harmful effects and global spread of pesticides like
DDT Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, commonly known as DDT, is a colorless, tasteless, and almost odorless crystalline chemical compound, an organochloride. Originally developed as an insecticide, it became infamous for its environmental impacts. ...
were first discussed in the 1960s. In the 1970s it was shown that
chlorofluorocarbons Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are fully or partly halogenated hydrocarbons that contain carbon (C), hydrogen (H), chlorine (Cl), and fluorine (F), produced as volatile derivatives of methane, ethane, and propa ...
(CFCs) were depleting the ozone layer. This led to the de facto ban of CFCs with the
Montreal Protocol The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion. It was agreed on 16 September 1987, and entered into force o ...
in 1987. The effect of greenhouse gases on the global climate was discussed by Arrhenius in the early 20th century (see also
history of climate change science The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect was first identified. In the late 19th centu ...
). Climate change as affected by human activities became an important topic in academic and political discourse several decades later, leading to the establishment of the
IPCC The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) ...
in 1988 and the
UNFCCC The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established an international environmental treaty to combat "dangerous human interference with the climate system", in part by stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in th ...
in 1992. In 1972, the UN held its first conference on environmental issues. The UN Conference on the Human Environment stated the importance of the protection and improvement of the human environment,UN (1973
Report of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment
A/CONF.48/14/Rev.1, Stockholm, 5–16 June 1972
and emphasized the need to protect
wildlife Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted ...
and natural
habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
s: In 2000, the UN launched eight
Millennium Development Goals The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 that had been established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millenn ...
(MDGs), to be achieved by the global community by 2015. Goal 7 was to "ensure environmental sustainability", but did not mention the concepts of social or economic sustainability. Public discussion of the environmental dimension of sustainability often revolves around prevailing issues of the time. The most dominant environmental issues since about the year 2000 have been
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
,
loss of biodiversity Biodiversity loss includes the worldwide extinction of different species, as well as the local reduction or loss of species in a certain habitat, resulting in a loss of biological diversity. The latter phenomenon can be temporary or permanent, de ...
, loss of
ecosystem service Ecosystem services are the many and varied benefits to humans provided by the natural environment and healthy ecosystems. Such ecosystems include, for example, agroecosystems, forest ecosystem, grassland ecosystems, and aquatic ecosystems. ...
s,
land degradation Land degradation is a process in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by a combination of human-induced processes acting upon the land. It is viewed as any change or disturbance to the land perceived to be deleterious o ...
, and
air The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...
and
water pollution Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. ...
(including
marine plastic pollution Marine plastic pollution (or plastic pollution in the ocean) is a type of marine pollution by plastics, ranging in size from large original material such as bottles and bags, down to microplastics formed from the fragmentation of plastic material ...
and
ocean acidification Ocean acidification is the reduction in the pH value of the Earth’s ocean. Between 1751 and 2021, the average pH value of the ocean surface has decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14. The root cause of ocean acidification is carbon dioxid ...
). The public is concerned about
human impacts on the environment Human impact on the environment (or anthropogenic impact) refers to changes to biophysical environments and to ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural resources caused directly or indirectly by humans. Modifying the environment to fit the need ...
, such as impacts on the atmosphere, land, and water resources. Of all the environmental challenges that humanity is currently facing and failing to solve, many scientists have singled out the following as the most troubling: "potentially catastrophic climate change due to rising
greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and ...
from burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and agricultural production—particularly from farming
ruminant Ruminants (suborder Ruminantia) are hoofed herbivorous grazing or browsing mammals that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to digestion, principally through microbial actions. The ...
s for meat consumption." The overall impact of humans' activities not only on the biosphere but even on the geological formation of the Earth led Paul Crutzen to speak of the current geological epoch as the
Anthropocene The Anthropocene ( ) is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change. , neither the International Commissio ...
. The impact of human activity on local to global ecosystems can reach tipping points beyond which irreversible harmful developments will be triggered, such as to the
climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...
.


Economic sustainability

To some, the economic dimension of sustainability is as controversial as the concept of sustainability itself. If the term "development" in sustainable development is understood in economic terms ("economic development") or even identified with economic growth, the notion of a sustainable development can become a way of whitewashing an ecologically destructive economic system. This is because of the inherent trade-offs between "welfare and prosperity for all" (in terms of material needs such as food, water, health, and shelter) and
environmental conservation *Environmental protection *Nature conservation Nature conservation is the moral philosophy and conservation movement focused on protecting species from extinction, maintaining and restoring habitats, enhancing ecosystem services, and protec ...
. On the other hand, especially for people in the least developed countries, a certain amount of economic development (e.g. to reduce
hunger In politics, humanitarian aid, and the social sciences, hunger is defined as a condition in which a person does not have the physical or financial capability to eat sufficient food to meet basic Human nutrition, nutritional needs for a sustaine ...
or
energy poverty Energy poverty is lack of access to modern energy services. It refers to the situation of large numbers of people in developing countries and some people in developed countries whose well-being is negatively affected by very low consumption of e ...
) is required. For that reason, the first target of Sustainable Development Goal 8 calls for economic growth, which is a driving force for societal progress and well-being. This target is to: "Sustain
per capita ''Per capita'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "by heads" or "for each head", and idiomatically used to mean "per person". The term is used in a wide variety of social sciences and statistical research contexts, including government statistic ...
economic growth in accordance with national circumstances and, in particular, at least 7 per cent
gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is oft ...
growth per annum in the least developed countries".United Nations (2017) Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 6 July 2017, Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
A/RES/71/313
Regardless of differences in the understanding of the concept of sustainability and sustainable development, it is clear that humanity will have to resolve the issue of how societal progress (potentially by economic development) can be reached without excess strain on the environment. Accordingly, in 2011
UNEP The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on ...
cited the big challenge to society to "expand economic activities" while at the same time reducing the use of natural resources and reducing the environmental impacts of economic activities.Decoupling natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth, A Report of the Working Group on Decoupling to the International Resource Panel
Fischer-Kowalski, M., Swilling, M., von Weizsäcker, E.U., Ren, Y., Moriguchi, Y., Crane, W., Krausmann, F., Eisenmenger, N., Giljum, S., Hennicke, P., Romero Lankao, P., Siriban Manalang, A., Sewerin, S.
According to the Brundtland report, " poverty is a major cause and also effect of global environmental problems. It is therefore futile to attempt to deal with environmental problems without a broader perspective that encompasses the factors underlying world poverty and international inequality." The report demands a new development path for sustained human progress and highlights that this is a goal for both the developing and the industrialized nations. UNEP and
UNDP The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
launched the Poverty-Environment Initiative in 2005, which aims at the triple vision of having neither any extreme poverty, nor greenhouse gas emissions nor net natural asset loss, which is proposed to guide the structural reform that will enable poor groups and countries to achieve the SDGs at scale. Such initiatives might be seen as a measure to mitigate the trade-off between a large ecological footprint and high status of economic development.


Social sustainability

The social dimension of sustainability is the least well defined and least understood dimension of sustainability. A possible definition is that a socially sustainable society should ensure that people are not hindered by structural obstacles in the areas of health, influence, competence, impartiality, and
meaning-making In psychology, meaning-making is the process of how people construe, understand, or make sense of life events, relationships, and the self. The term is widely used in constructivist approaches to counseling psychology and psychotherapy, especial ...
. Despite this anchoring of the social dimension of sustainability in the Brundtland report, social sustainability can be addressed in different ways. Some scholars place social issues at the very center of sustainability discussions. They suggest that all of the domains of sustainability are social: including ecological, economic, political, and cultural sustainability. These domains of social sustainability all depend on the relationship between the social and the natural, with the ecological domain defined as human embeddedness in the environment. In these terms, social sustainability encompasses all human activities. It is not just relevant to the focused intersection of economics, the environment, and the social. Broad strategies for more sustainable social systems include improved education and the political
empowerment of women Women's empowerment (or female empowerment) may be defined in several ways, including accepting women's viewpoints, making an effort to seek them and raising the status of women through Education, education, social awareness, awareness, literac ...
, especially in developing countries; greater regard for
social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, Equal opportunity, opportunities, and Social privilege, privileges within a society. In Western Civilization, Western and Culture of Asia, Asian cultures, the concept of social ...
, notably equity between rich and poor both within and between countries; and, perhaps most of all,
intergenerational equity Intergenerational equity in economic, psychological, and sociological contexts, is the idea of fairness or justice between generations. The concept can be applied to fairness in dynamics between children, youth, adults, and seniors. It can al ...
.Cohen, J.E. (2006). "Human Population: The Next Half Century." In Kennedy D. (Ed.) ''Science Magazine's State of the Planet 2006-7''. London: Island Press, pp. 13–21. . One example to achieve social sustainability more effectively would be by providing more social safety nets to vulnerable populations globally. Social sustainability is thought to lead to livable communities which would be "equitable, diverse, connected and democratic and provide a good quality of life".


Proposed additional dimensions

Some sustainability experts and practitioners have proposed more dimensions of sustainability, such as institutional, cultural, and technical dimensions. Some consider resource use and financial sustainability as two additional dimensions of sustainability. In infrastructure projects, for instance, one must ask whether sufficient financing capability for maintenance exists. Other frameworks bypass the compartmentalization of sustainability completely.


Cultural sustainability

Some academics and institutions (such as
Agenda 21 for culture Culture 21, also known as Agenda 21 for culture, is a program for cultural governance developed in 2002–2004 and organized by United Cities and Local Governments. Part of the program's premise is to add culture as a fourth conceptual pillar of ...
and the
United Cities and Local Governments United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) is an umbrella international organisation for cities, local and regional governments, and municipal associations throughout the world that is concerned with representing and defending the interests of ...
) have pointed out that a fourth dimension should be added to the dimensions of sustainability since the triple-bottom-line dimensions of economic, environmental and social do not seem to be enough to reflect the complexity of contemporary society.United Cities and Local Governments
"Culture: Fourth Pillar of Sustainable Development"
This discussion points to the relation between culture and sustainable development through developing a solid cultural policy and advocating a cultural dimension in all public policies. Another example of this four-dimensional view was the
Circles of Sustainability Circles of Sustainability is a method for understanding and assessing sustainability, and for project management directed towards socially sustainable outcomes. It is intended to handle 'seemingly intractable problems' such as outlined in ...
approach, which included cultural sustainability.


Interactions between dimensions


Environmental and economic dimensions

The relationship between the environmental and economic dimensions of sustainability is a debated topic. The concept of weak sustainability assumes that
natural capital Natural capital is the world's stock of natural resources, which includes geology, soils, air, water and all living organisms. Some natural capital assets provide people with free goods and services, often called ecosystem services. All of t ...
(or environmental resources) can be substituted with "capital made by humans".Robert U. Ayres & Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh & John M. Gowdy, 1998.
Viewpoint: Weak versus Strong Sustainability
" Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 98-103/3, Tinbergen Institute.
An example is the technological progress that has solved many environmental problems, such as using
environmental technologies Environmental technology (envirotech) or green technology (greentech), also known as '' clean technology'' (''cleantech''), is the application of one or more of environmental science, green chemistry, environmental monitoring and electronic devi ...
to reduce
pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
. The concept of strong sustainability, on the other hand, states that nature (or natural capital) provides functions that cannot be replaced by technology. Thus, strong sustainability acknowledges the need to preserve ecological integrity. It emphasizes that many resources and ecosystem services cannot be recovered or repaired within a reasonable timescale once lost. Examples include loss of biodiversity,
pollination Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds, a ...
, fertile soils, assimilation capacity, clean air, clean water, and climate regulation. Robert Ayres, a physicist and economist, has pointed out that, in practice, economic decisions are taken at very narrow social scales, such as for the interests of individuals, family groups, or firms, and not with regards to future generations and planetary welfare. The economic dimension relies on the environmental dimension in many aspects. Accordingly, weak sustainability has been criticized as "popular among governments, and business, but profoundly wrong and not even weak, as there is no alternative to preserving the earth's ecological integrity". This statement underlines the central importance of the environmental dimension of sustainability. For example, in 2020 the
World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...
stated that: "Our research shows that $44 trillion of economic value generation – more than half of the world's total
GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...
– is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services and is therefore exposed to nature loss."WEF (2020
Nature Risk Rising: Why the Crisis Engulfing Nature Matters for Business and the Economy
New Nature Economy, World Economic Forum in collaboration with PwC
Three large economic sectors are highly dependent on nature:
construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form Physical object, objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Pr ...
,
agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...
, and food and beverages. Drivers of nature loss include: land use change, sea use change, climate change,
natural resource Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. ...
use and exploitation, pollution, and
invasive alien species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced species, introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, i ...
.


Trade-offs

The notion of trade-offs between different dimensions, for example between environmental management and economic growth, is frequently discussed. Balancing the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability is difficult; environmental and social costs are not generally paid by the entity that creates them, and are not expressed in the market price. Usually, these costs are either not addressed or are left to be resolved by government policy. Trade-offs between environmental management and economic growth lead to disagreement about the relative importance of each. This may include discussions of the relative importance of the three dimensions or objectives. The language involved frequently invokes the need to integrate, balance, and reconcile the dimensions without necessarily articulating what this means in practice. The physical limits of Earth and its ecosystems mean that the "aspirations for universal human well-being embedded in the Sustainable Development Goals" cannot be supported under current trends. How the preservation of ecological integrity (i.e. environmental sustainability) relates to other (social, economic) demands creates a moral dilemma. This dilemma is inevitable and can only be resolved by prioritizing or compromising ecological integrity.


Measurement tools


Environmental impacts of humans

Methods to measure or describe humans' impacts on the Earth include the ecological footprint,
ecological debt Ecological debt refers to the supposed accumulation of debt of the Global North to Global South countries, due to the net sum of historical environmental injustice, especially through resource exploitation, habitat degradation, and pollution by w ...
, carrying capacity, and sustainable yield. The concept of
planetary boundaries Planetary boundaries is a concept highlighting human-caused perturbations of Earth systems making them relevant in a way not accommodated by the environmental boundaries separating the three ages within the Holocene epoch. Crossing a planetary ...
emphasizes that there are absolute thresholds of the carrying capacity of the planet which must not be crossed in order to prevent irreversible harmful changes to the Earth system. Components with expected planetary boundaries include:
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
,
biodiversity loss Biodiversity loss includes the worldwide extinction of different species, as well as the local reduction or loss of species in a certain habitat, resulting in a loss of biological diversity. The latter phenomenon can be temporary or permanent, de ...
(changed in 2015 to "change in biosphere integrity"),
biogeochemical Biogeochemistry is the scientific discipline that involves the study of the chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes and reactions that govern the composition of the natural environment (including the biosphere, the cryosphere, th ...
(nitrogen and phosphorus),
ocean acidification Ocean acidification is the reduction in the pH value of the Earth’s ocean. Between 1751 and 2021, the average pH value of the ocean surface has decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14. The root cause of ocean acidification is carbon dioxid ...
,
land use Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as settlements and semi-natural habitats such as arable fields, pastures, and managed woods. Land use by humans has a long ...
, freshwater, ozone depletion,
atmospheric aerosols An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A ...
, chemical pollution (changed in 2015 to "introduction of novel entities"). The ''
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) is a major assessment of the human impact on the environment, called for by the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2000, launched in 2001 and published in 2005 with more than $14 million of g ...
'' from 2005 measured 24 ecosystem services and concluded that only four have shown improvement over the last 50 years, while 15 are in serious decline and five are in a precarious condition.


Economic costs

The field of
environmental economics Environmental economics is a sub-field of economics concerned with environmental issues. It has become a widely studied subject due to growing environmental concerns in the twenty-first century. Environmental economics "undertakes theoretical or ...
has proposed different methods for calculating the cost (or price) associated with the use of public natural resources. The damage to ecosystems and the loss of biodiversity were calculated in
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) was a study led by Pavan Sukhdev from 2007 to 2011. It is an international initiative to draw attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity. Its objective is to highlight the growing c ...
(TEEB) project from 2007 to 2011. Sustainability economics means taking a long-term view of human welfare. One way of doing this is by considering the social discount rate. This is the rate by which future costs and benefits should be discounted when making decisions. The more one is concerned about future generations, the lower the social discount rate should be. Another method is to quantify the services that ecosystems provide to humankind and put an economic value on them, so that environmental damage may be assessed against perceived short-term welfare benefits. For example, it has been calculated that "for every dollar spent on ecosystem restoration, between three and 75 dollars of economic benefits from ecosystem goods and services can be expected". In recent years, the concept of doughnut economics has been developed by the British economist
Kate Raworth Kate Raworth (born 13 December 1970) is an English economist known for " doughnut economics", which she understands as an economic model that balances between essential human needs and planetary boundaries. She is Senior Associate at Oxford Unive ...
to integrate social and environmental sustainability into economic thinking. The social dimension is here portrayed as a minimum standard to which a society should aspire, whereas an outer limit is imposed by the carrying capacity of the planet.


Barriers

The political goal of sustainability, as formulated in the "2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" (the 17 Sustainable Development Goals), is very comprehensive and ambitious. The declaration stated that "In these Goals and targets, we are setting out a supremely ambitious and transformational vision" and have called the SDGs to be "of unprecedented scope and significance". Due to the high complexity of this goal, there are many reasons why sustainability is so difficult to achieve. Such reasons are also called sustainability barriers. These barriers need to be analyzed and understood. Only then can they be addressed effectively so that a sustainability transition becomes possible. Some sustainability barriers have their origins in nature and its complexity ("everything is related"). Others are rooted in the human condition: the
value-action gap The value-action gap (also called the attitude-behavior gap, intention-behavior gap, KAP-gap (knowledge-attitudes-practice gap) or belief-behavior gap) is the space that occurs when the values (personal and cultural) or attitudes of an individual ...
, for instance, relates to the fact that we often do not act according to our convictions. These barriers have been called intrinsic to the concept of sustainability as such. Other barriers are extrinsic to the concept of sustainability. This means they could in principle be overcome, for example by putting a price tag on the consumption of public goods. A number of extrinsic sustainability barriers are related to the dominant institutional frameworks where market mechanisms often fail for
public goods In economics, a public good (also referred to as a social good or collective good)Oakland, W. H. (1987). Theory of public goods. In Handbook of public economics (Vol. 2, pp. 485-535). Elsevier. is a good that is both non-excludable and non-riv ...
. Also, legal frameworks rarely consider issues of intergenerational justice and future generations. Existing societies, economies, and cultures incite consumption expansion. Therefore, the structural imperative for growth in
competitive market In economics, competition is a scenario where different economic firmsThis article follows the general economic convention of referring to all actors as firms; examples in include individuals and brands or divisions within the same (legal) firm ...
economies inhibits necessary societal change. Text was copied from this source, which is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
/ref> Furthermore, there are several barriers related to the difficulties of implementing sustainability policies. There are trade-offs to be made between objectives of environmental policies (such as nature conservation) and economic development (such as poverty reduction). There are also trade-offs between short-term profit and long-term viability. Political pressures generally favor the short term over the long term and thus constitute a barrier to actions oriented toward improving sustainability. Barriers working against sustainability can also be due to the
Zeitgeist In 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy, a ''Zeitgeist'' () ("spirit of the age") is an invisible agent, force or Daemon dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history. Now, the term is usually associated with Georg W. ...
, such as
consumerism Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the su ...
and
short-termism Short-termism is giving priority to immediate profit, quickly executed projects and short-term results, over long term results and far-seeing action. Short-termism is attributed to certain cognitive biases. See also * Hyperbolic discounting Ref ...
.


Transitions


Components and characteristics

A sustainability transition is a structural and potentially radical transformation to a more sustainable society. The European Environment Agency defines a "sustainability transition" as, "a fundamental and wide-ranging transformation of a socio-technical system towards a transition more sustainable configuration that helps alleviate persistent problems such as climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss or resource scarcities." The concept of sustainability transitions is a similar to the concept of energy transitions. A sustainability transition must be "supported by a new kind of culture, a new kind of collaboration, a new kind of leadership". It requires substantial investment in "new and greener capital goods, while simultaneously shifting capital away from unsustainable systems". It also requires actively demoting unsustainable options. To achieve a sustainability transition, societies would have to change their fundamental values and organizing principles. These new values would emphasize "the quality of life and material sufficiency, human solidarity and global equity, and affinity with nature and environmental sustainability". Any transition towards sustainability can only be effective if far-reaching lifestyle changes complement technological advancements. Scientists have pointed out that: "Sustainability transitions come about in diverse ways, and all require civil-society pressure and
evidence-based Evidence-based practice (EBP) is the idea that occupational practices ought to be based on scientific evidence. While seemingly obviously desirable, the proposal has been controversial, with some arguing that results may not specialize to indiv ...
advocacy, political leadership, and a solid understanding of policy instruments, markets, and other drivers." Four overlapping processes of transformation have been identified: they are either led by technology, markets, government, or citizens. They each have different political dynamics. The IPAT formula, which was developed in the 1970s, states that the environmental impact of humans is proportional to human population, affluence and technology. Therefore, to decrease environmental impact and to increase sustainability, routes such as human
population control Population control is the practice of artificially maintaining the size of any population. It simply refers to the act of limiting the size of an animal population so that it remains manageable, as opposed to the act of protecting a species from ...
, reducing
consumption Consumption may refer to: *Resource consumption *Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, historically * Consumption (ecology), receipt of energy by consuming other organisms * Consumption (economics), the purchasing of newly produced goods for curren ...
and
affluence Wealth is the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions. This includes the core meaning as held in the originating Old English word , which is from an ...
(e.g. reducing energy consumption), and developing innovative or green technologies (e.g. renewable energy) would all be beneficial. In other words, the broad aim would be to have fewer
consumers A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...
and less environmental footprint per consumer or person.


Action principles

There are four types of action principles that people and decision-makers can follow to facilitate more sustainable societies: * Nature-related principles: Decarbonize; reduce human
environmental impact Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on t ...
by efficiency, sufficiency and consistency; be net-positive – build up environmental and societal capital; prefer local, seasonal, plant-based and labor-intensive;
polluter-pays principle In environmental law, the polluter pays principle is enacted to make the party responsible for producing pollution responsible for paying for the damage done to the natural environment. It is regarded as a regional custom because of the strong sup ...
;
precautionary principle The precautionary principle (or precautionary approach) is a broad epistemological, philosophical and legal approach to innovations with potential for causing harm when extensive scientific knowledge on the matter is lacking. It emphasizes caut ...
; and appreciate and celebrate the beauty of nature * Personal principles: practice contemplation, apply policies cautiously, celebrate
frugality Frugality is the quality of being frugal, sparing, thrifty, prudent or economical in the consumption of consumable resources such as food, time or money, and avoiding waste, lavishness or extravagance. In behavioral science, frugality has been ...
* Society-related principles: Grant the least privileged the greatest support; seek mutual understanding, trust and multiple wins; strengthen
social cohesion Group cohesiveness (also called group cohesion and social cohesion) arises when bonds link members of a social group to one another and to the group as a whole. Although cohesion is a multi-faceted process, it can be broken down into four main co ...
and collaboration; engage the stakeholders; foster education – share knowledge and collaborate. * Systems-related principles: Apply systems thinking, foster diversity, increase the transparency of the publicly relevant, maintain or increase option diversity.


Example steps

Some example steps humanity can take in three areas to transition to (environmental) sustainability include (as per the update to the 1992
World Scientists' Warning to Humanity The "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity" was a document written in 1992 by Henry W. Kendall and signed by about 1,700 leading scientists. Twenty-five years later, in November 2017, 15,364 scientists signed "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity ...
): In the area of reduced consumption: reducing
food waste Food loss and waste is food that is not eaten. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous and occur throughout the food system, during production, processing, distribution, retail and food service sales, and consumption. Overall, about o ...
, promoting
dietary In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. The word diet often implies the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management reasons (with the two often being related). Although humans are o ...
shifts towards mostly plant-based foods. In the area of reducing the number of consumers: further reducing fertility rates and thus population growth; and in the area of technology and nature conservation: maintaining nature's
ecosystem service Ecosystem services are the many and varied benefits to humans provided by the natural environment and healthy ecosystems. Such ecosystems include, for example, agroecosystems, forest ecosystem, grassland ecosystems, and aquatic ecosystems. ...
s, promoting new green technologies and adopting renewable energy sources while phasing out subsidies to energy production through fossil fuels. In 2015, the
United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
announced in the Agenda 2030 for the Sustainable Development Goals: "We are determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world on to a sustainable and resilient path." The 17 goals and targets lay out some of the transformative steps. For example, with regard to the future of the planet Earth, the UN's pledge is to "protect the planet from
degradation Degradation may refer to: Science * Degradation (geology), lowering of a fluvial surface by erosion * Degradation (telecommunications), of an electronic signal * Biodegradation of organic substances by living organisms * Environmental degradatio ...
, including through
sustainable consumption Sustainable consumption (sometimes abbreviated to "SC") is the use of products and services in ways that minimize impacts on the environment in order for human needs to be met in the present but also for future generations. Sustainable consumption ...
and
production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...
, sustainably managing its natural resources and taking urgent action on climate change, so that it can support the needs of the present and future generations."


Options for overcoming barriers


Issues around economic growth

In order to resolve the dilemma of economic growth versus environmental conservation, the concept of eco-economic decoupling has been proposed. The idea would be to decouple environmental bads from economic goods as a path towards sustainability. This would mean "using less resources per unit of economic output and reducing the environmental impact of any resources that are used or economic activities that are undertaken" Pressure on the environment can be measured by the intensity of
pollutant A pollutant or novel entity is a substance or energy introduced into the environment that has undesired effects, or adversely affects the usefulness of a resource. These can be both naturally forming (i.e. minerals or extracted compounds like o ...
s emitted. Decoupling can then be measured by following changes in the
emission intensity An emission intensity (also carbon intensity or C.I.) is the emission rate of a given pollutant relative to the intensity of a specific activity, or an industrial production process; for example grams of carbon dioxide released per megajoule o ...
associated with economic output. Examples of absolute long-term decoupling are rare, but some industrialized countries have decoupled
GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...
growth from both production and, to a lesser extent, consumption-based emissions. But even in this example decoupling alone is not sufficient and needs to be complemented by "sufficiency-oriented strategies and strict enforcement of absolute reduction targets". A 2020
meta-analysis A meta-analysis is a statistical analysis that combines the results of multiple scientific studies. Meta-analyses can be performed when there are multiple scientific studies addressing the same question, with each individual study reporting me ...
of 180
scientific studies The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article history of scientific m ...
found that there is "no evidence of the kind of decoupling needed for ecological sustainability" and that "in the absence of robust evidence, the goal of decoupling rests partly on faith". The possibilities for decoupling and thus the feasibility of
green growth Green growth is a term to describe a hypothetical path of economic growth that is environmentally sustainable. It is based on the understanding that as long as economic growth remains a predominant goal, a decoupling of economic growth from resou ...
have been questioned.Parrique T., Barth J., Briens F., C. Kerschner, Kraus-Polk A., Kuokkanen A., Spangenberg J.H., 2019
Decoupling debunked: Evidence and arguments against green growth as a sole strategy for sustainability
European Environmental Bureau.
Decoupling on its own will not sufficiently reduce environmental pressures, but needs to go with addressing the issue of economic growth. Adequate decoupling is currently not taking place due to rising energy expenditure,
rebound effects The rebound effect, or rebound phenomenon, is the emergence or re-emergence of symptoms that were either absent or controlled while taking a medication, but appear when that same medication is discontinued, or reduced in dosage. In the case of re ...
, problem shifting, the underestimated impact of services, the limited potential of recycling, insufficient and inappropriate technological change, and cost-shifting. The decoupling of economic growth from environmental deterioration is difficult because environmental and social costs are not generally paid by the entity that causes them, and are therefore not expressed in the market price. In other words, the causal entities (businesses, etc.) tend to be free riders regarding environmental goods. For example, the cost of packaging is factored into the price of a product, but the cost of disposing of that packaging is not. In economics, such factors are considered
externalities In economics, an externality or external cost is an indirect cost or benefit to an uninvolved third party that arises as an effect of another party's (or parties') activity. Externalities can be considered as unpriced goods involved in either co ...
, in this case a negative externality. Companies do not have an incentive to reduce packaging or to choose recyclable materials because they are not required to pay for disposal. Usually, externalities are either not covered at all or left to be addressed by government action or by local governance. The Sustainable Development Goals adopted some conservative and unambitious perspectives on the tensions between economic growth and environmental sustainability. This is evident, for example, in their emphasis on longstanding but dubious claims about decoupling and resource efficiency as technological solutions to the environmental crisis. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Some examples of potential incorporation of environmental and social costs and benefits into economic activities include: taxing the activity (the
polluter pays In environmental law, the polluter pays principle is enacted to make the party responsible for producing pollution responsible for paying for the damage done to the natural environment. It is regarded as a regional custom because of the strong sup ...
); subsidizing activities that have a positive environmental or social effect (rewarding stewardship); and outlawing particular levels of damaging practices (legal limits on pollution).


Government action and local governance

Without government action, natural resources are often over-exploited and destroyed in the long-term. A textbook on natural resources and
environmental economics Environmental economics is a sub-field of economics concerned with environmental issues. It has become a widely studied subject due to growing environmental concerns in the twenty-first century. Environmental economics "undertakes theoretical or ...
stated in 2011: "Nobody who has seriously studied the issues believes that the economy's relationship to the natural environment can be left entirely to market forces." Related to this aspect,
Elinor Ostrom Elinor Claire "Lin" Ostrom (née Awan; August 7, 1933 – June 12, 2012) was an American political scientist and political economist whose work was associated with New Institutional Economics and the resurgence of political economy. In 2009, ...
(winner of the 2009
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel ( sv, Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne), is an economics award administered ...
) stated that the choice should not be limited to either the market or the national government, and that local governance (or self-governance) can in fact be a suitable third option. Her empirical work involved field studies on how people in small, local communities manage shared natural resources. She showed that, over time, communities using natural resources such as
pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...
s, fishing waters, and forests can establish rules for use and maintenance that can lead to both economic and ecological sustainability. An important requirement for the success of self-governance is to have groups in which participants are frequently communicating. In this case, groups can manage the usage of common goods without overexploitation. Based on Ostrom's work, it has been pointed out that: "Common-pool resources today are overcultivated because the different agents do not know each other and cannot directly communicate with one another."


Global governance

Questions of global concern are difficult to tackle because global issues would require global solutions. But the existing global organizations (UN,
WTO The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...
and others) are not sufficiently equipped. They have hardly any sanctioning mechanisms to enforce existing global regulation. Furthermore, they are not always accepted by all nations (an example is the
International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals f ...
), their agendas are not aligned (for example UNEP, UNDP and WTO), or they are being accused of nepotism and mismanagement. There are also challenges that multilateral international agreements, treaties and
intergovernmental organization Globalization Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of ...
s (IGOs) face and which result in barriers to sustainability: There is a dependence on voluntary commitments (for example
Nationally Determined Contribution A nationally determined contribution (NDC) or intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) is a non-binding national plan highlighting climate change mitigation, including climate-related targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions. Thes ...
s for climate action), existing national or international regulation not being effectively enforced, and there are regulatory white spaces and control deficits for international actors (including multi-national enterprises). Lastly, many international public organizations (such as WTO, IMF,
World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...
,
UNFCCC The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established an international environmental treaty to combat "dangerous human interference with the climate system", in part by stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in th ...
, G7, G8,
OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...
) are lacking perceived
legitimacy Legitimacy, from the Latin ''legitimare'' meaning "to make lawful", may refer to: * Legitimacy (criminal law) * Legitimacy (family law) * Legitimacy (political) See also * Bastard (law of England and Wales) * Illegitimacy in fiction * Legit (d ...
and democracy.


Responses by non-government stakeholders


Businesses

Sustainable business A sustainable business, or a green business, is an enterprise that has minimal negative impact or potentially a positive effect on the global or local Natural environment, environment, community, society, or economy—a business that strives to m ...
practices integrate ecological concerns with social and economic ones. One accounting framework for this approach is called the
triple bottom line The triple bottom line (or otherwise noted as TBL or 3BL) is an accounting framework with three parts: social, environmental (or ecological) and economic. Some organizations have adopted the TBL framework to evaluate their performance in a broade ...
which uses the phrase "people, planet, and profit". The circular economy is a related concept in sustainability with the ultimate goal of decoupling environmental pressure from economic growth. Growing attention towards sustainability has led to the formation of many organizations such as the Sustainability Consortium of the
Society for Organizational Learning The Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) is an American organization founded in 1997 by Peter Senge. It replaced the Center for Organizational Learning at MIT. Since 1999, SoL publishes its own journal, "Reflections". Its European Counterpar ...
, the Sustainable Business Institute, and the
World Business Council for Sustainable Development The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is a CEO-led organization of over 200 international companies. The Council is also connected to 60 national and regional business councils and partner organizations. Its origins ...
. Supply chain sustainability refers to companies' efforts to consider the environmental and human impacts of their products' journey through the supply chain, from raw materials sourcing to production, storage, and delivery and every transportation link in between.


Religious communities

Religious leaders have stressed the importance of caring for nature and environmental sustainability. In 2015 over 150 leaders from various faiths issued a joint statement to the UN Climate Summit in Paris 2015. They reiterated a statement made in the Interfaith Summit in New York in 2014: "As representatives from different faith and religious traditions, we stand together to express deep concern for the consequences of climate change on the earth and its people, all entrusted, as our faiths reveal, to our common care. Climate change is indeed a threat to life, a precious gift we have received and that we need to care for."


Individuals

Individuals can change their
lifestyle Lifestyle often refers to: * Lifestyle (sociology), the way a person lives * ''Otium'', ancient Roman concept of a lifestyle * Style of life (german: Lebensstil, link=no), dealing with the dynamics of personality Lifestyle may also refer to: Bu ...
s and practice
ethical consumerism Ethical consumerism (alternatively called ethical consumption, ethical purchasing, moral purchasing, ethical sourcing, or ethical shopping and also associated with sustainable and green consumerism) is a type of consumer activism based on the con ...
and embrace
frugality Frugality is the quality of being frugal, sparing, thrifty, prudent or economical in the consumption of consumable resources such as food, time or money, and avoiding waste, lavishness or extravagance. In behavioral science, frugality has been ...
to live more sustainably. Sustainable living approaches can reduce environmental impacts by altering the built environment to make cities more sustainable. Such approaches can include sustainable transport, sustainable architecture and zero emission housing. Research can identify the main issues to focus on (e.g., flying, meat and dairy products, car driving, and household sufficiency) and how cultures of sufficiency, care, solidarity, and simplicity can be created. Young people are using a combination of activism, litigation, and on-the-ground efforts to advancing sustainability, particularly in the area of climate action.Aggarwal, D., Esquivel, N., Hocquet, R., Martin, K., Mungo, C., Nazareth, A., Nikam, J., Odenyo, J., Ravindran, B., Kurinji, L. S., Shawoo, Z., & Yamada, K. (2022)
Charting a youth vision for a just and sustainable future
Stockholm Environment Institute. DOI: 10.51414/sei2022.010


Critique


Impossible to reach

The concepts of sustainability and sustainable development have been criticized from different angles. According to
Dennis Meadows Dennis Lynn Meadows (born June 7, 1942) is an American scientist and Emeritus Professor of Systems Management, and former director of the Institute for Policy and Social Science Research at the University of New Hampshire. He is President of t ...
, one of the authors of the first report to the Club of Rome, called "
The Limits to Growth ''The Limits to Growth'' (''LTG'') is a 1972 report that discussed the possibility of exponential economic and population growth with finite supply of resources, studied by computer simulation. The study used the World3 computer model to simula ...
", many people deceive themselves by using the Brundtland definition of sustainability. This is because the needs of the present generation are actually not met today, and the economic activities to meet present needs will substantially diminish the options of
future generations Future generations are cohorts of hypothetical people not yet born. Future generations are contrasted with current and past generations, and evoked in order to encourage thinking about intergenerational equity. The moral patienthood of future g ...
. Another criticism is that the paradigm of sustainability is no longer suitable as a guide for transformation due to the fact that our societies are "socially and ecologically self-destructive consumer societies". Some scholars have even proclaimed the end of the concept of sustainability due to "the realities of the
Anthropocene The Anthropocene ( ) is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change. , neither the International Commissio ...
"; humans now have a significant impact on Earth's geology and
ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...
s (for example causing unprecedented rates of biodiversity loss and climate change). It might become impossible to pursue a goal of sustainability when faced with these complex, radical, and dynamic issues. Others have called sustainability a
utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island societ ...
n ideal: "we need to keep sustainability as an ideal; an ideal which we might never reach, which might be utopian, but still a necessary one".


Vague and unclear

The term has been hijacked and lost its meaning: "Ask anyone what it means and they will give you a wide range of answers from saving the planet to recycling". As sustainability is a concept that provides a normative structure (describing what human society regards as good or desirable), a specific definition may never be possible. On the other hand, while "sustainability" is vague and contested it is not meaningless. Although lacking in a singular definition, a concept such as sustainability is still useful. Scholars have pointed out that its fuzziness can actually be liberating, since it means that "the basic goal of sustainability (maintaining or improving desirable conditions, and more broadly strengthening the capacity to do so) can be pursued with more flexibility".


Confusion and greenwashing

Sustainability has a reputation as a buzzword. Confusion and mistrust can result when special interest groups attempt to apply the terms "sustainability" and "sustainable development" in ways that are contradictory to more widely accepted conceptualizations. Ambiguous use of the term is problematic. Therefore, clear identification of how the term is being used in a particular situation is beneficial.
Greenwashing Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on " whitewash"), also called "green sheen", is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aim ...
is the practice of deceptive marketing by a company or organization by providing misleading information about the sustainability of a product, policy, or other environment-harming activity. This makes products appear more sustainable (more environmentally friendly, natural, healthier, free of chemicals, recyclable, less wasteful of natural resources) than they actually are. Investors are wary of this issue as it exposes them to risk. The reliability of eco-labels is also doubtful in some cases. Ecolabelling is a voluntary method of environmental performance certification and labelling that is attached to food and
consumer products A final good or consumer good is a final product ready for sale that is used by the consumer to satisfy current wants or needs, unlike a intermediate good, which is used to produce other goods. A microwave oven or a bicycle is a final good, but t ...
. The most credible eco-labels are those that are developed with close participation from all relevant stakeholders.


See also

* List of sustainability topics * Outline of sustainability


References

{{Authority control Environmentalism Economics of sustainability Environmental social science concepts Environmental terminology Human-Environment interaction