More definitions on Sustainability



Definitions of Sustainability and Sustainable Development

|Brundtland Report (World | |Jerry Sturmer | |

|Commission on Environment & | |Sustainability is meeting the | |

|Development) | |needs of all humans, being able to| |

|Sustainable development is | |do so on a finite planet for | |

|development that meets the needs | |generations to come while ensuring| |

|of the present without | |some degree of openness and | |

|compromising the ability of future| |flexibility to adapt to changing | |

|generations to meet their own | |circumstances. | |

|needs. | | | |

| |James Coomer | |Thomas Jefferson Sustainability |

| |A sustainable society is one that | |Council |

| |lives within the self-perpetuating| |Sustainability may be described as |

| |limits of its environment. That | |our responsibility to proceed in a |

| |society is not a "no growth" | |way that will sustain life that will |

| |society - it is, rather a society | |allow our children, grandchildren, |

| |that recognizes the limits of | |and great grandchildren to live |

| |growth and looks for alternative | |comfortably in a friendly, clean, and|

| |ways of growing. | |healthy world. |

|Sustainable Seattle | |Robert Gilman | |

|Sustainability is a new way of | |Sustainability is equity over | |

|thinking about an age-old concern:| |time. As a value, it refers to | |

|ensuring that our children and | |giving equal weight in your | |

|grandchildren inherit a tomorrow | |decisions to the future as well as| |

|that is at least as good as today,| |the present. You might think of it| |

|preferably better. We want to make| |as extending the Golden Rule | |

|sure that the way we live our | |through time, so that you do unto | |

|lives is sustainable - that it can| |future generations (as well as to | |

|continue and keep improving for a | |your present fellow beings) as you| |

|long, long time. | |would have them do unto you. | |

| |James McNeil | |David Schaller |

| |Growth based on forms and | |Achieving the ecological balance |

| |processes of development that do | |which allows economic prosperity and |

| |not undermine the integrity of the| |social equity to be achieved across |

| |environment on which they depend. | |generations. |

|Robert Gilman | |Paul Hawken | |

|Sustainability refers to the | |Sustainability is an economic | |

|ability of a society, ecosystem, | |state where the demands placed | |

|or any such ongoing system to | |upon the environment by people and| |

|continue functioning into the | |commerce can be met without | |

|indefinite future without being | |reducing the capacity of the | |

|forced into decline through | |environment to provide for future | |

|exhaustion. . . of key resources. | |generations. | |

|Caring for the Earth | |Donella Meadows | |

|Development that provides real | |A sustainable society is one that | |

|improvements in the quality of | |is far-seeing enough, flexible | |

|human life and at the same time | |enough, and wise enough not to | |

|conserves the vitality and | |undermine either its physical or | |

|diversity of the Earth. | |its social systems of support. | |

| |Sustainable Sonoma County | |Thomas Jefferson |

| |Sustainability secures people's | |Then I say the earth belongs to |

| |quality of life within the means | |each...generation during its course, |

| |of nature in a way that is fair | |fully and in its own right. The |

| |and equitable to all humanity, | |second generation receives it clear |

| |other species and to future | |of the debts and encumbrances, the |

| |generations. Sustainability | |third of the second, and so on. For |

| |recognizes the inter-relatedness | |if the first could charge it with a |

| |of the economy, society, and | |debt, then the earth would belong to |

| |environment. It requires that we | |the dead and not to the living |

| |not consume resources faster than | |generation. Then, no generation can |

| |they can be renewed nor produce | |contract debts greater than may be |

| |wastes faster than they can be | |paid during the course of it's own |

| |absorbed. | |existence. |

| | | |Sept. 6, 1789 |

|Mike Nickerson | |Theodore Roosevelt | |

|Activities are sustainable whey | |The "greatest good for the | |

|they: | |greatest number" applies to the | |

|1. use materials in continuing | |[number of] people within the womb| |

|cycles; | |of time, compared to which those | |

|2. use continuously reliable | |now alive form but an | |

|sources of energy; and | |insignificant fraction. Our duty | |

|3. come mainly from the potentials| |to the whole, including the unborn| |

|of being human, i.e., | |generations, bids us to restrain | |

|communication, creativity, | |an unprincipled present-day | |

|coordination, appreciation, and | |minority from wasting the heritage| |

|spiritual and intellectual | |of these unborn generations." 1916| |

|development. | | | |

| |Jamie Cloud | | David Orr |

| |Sustainability is a dynamic | |The overall challenge of |

| |condition which requires a basic | |sustainability is to avoid crossing |

| |understanding of the | |irreversible thresholds that damage |

| |interconnections and | |the life systems of Earth while |

| |interdependency among ecological, | |creating long-term economic, |

| |economic and social systems. | |political, and moral arrangements |

| |Sustainability means providing a | |that secure the wellbeing of present |

| |rich quality of life for all and | |and future generations. |

| |accomplishing this within the | | |

| |means of nature. | | |

|Juan Carlos Wandemberg | |Elliot Rosenberg | |

|Sustainable development is a | |Sustainable development refers to | |

|socio-ecological process | |a positive rate of change in the | |

|characterized by the fulfillment | |quality of life (i.e. well being) | |

|of human needs while maintaining | |of people based on a system which | |

|the quality of the natural | |permits this positive rate of | |

|environment indefinitely. | |change to be maintained for an | |

| | |indefinite period of time. | |

| |President's Council on Sustainable| |Debra Dadd-Redalia |

| |Development | |Sustainable means being able to keep |

| |Sustainable development is | |going or able to endure; |

| |economic growth that will benefit | |sustainability, then, is acting in |

| |present and future generations | |such a way that life on Earth endures|

| |without detrimentally affecting | |on into the future, providing for the|

| |the resources or biological | |needs of all citizens and creatures |

| |systems of the planet. | |while maintaining the natural |

| |A sustainable United States will | |functions, resources, and beauty of |

| |have a growing economy that | |the planet...Sustainability is rooted|

| |provides equitable opportunities | |in looking to the inherent workings |

| |for satisfying livelihoods and a | |of nature as a model, with the idea |

| |safe, healthy, high quality of | |that the natural systems of the world|

| |life for current and future | |do work in balance to perpetuate |

| |generations. Our nation will | |life, and by working in harmony with |

| |protect its environment, its | |those natural systems, we can sustain|

| |natural resource base, and the | |our own lives. |

| |functions and viability of natural| | |

| |systems on which all life depends.| | |

|Hamilton Wentworth Regional | |Center for Sustainable Communities| |

|Council | |Sustainability is part of a trend | |

|Sustainable development is | |to...consider the whole instead of| |

|positive change which does not | |the specific. Sustainability | |

|undermine the environmental or | |emphasizes relationships rather | |

|social systems on which we depend.| |than pieces in | |

|It requires a coordinated approach| |isolation...Sustainability is not | |

|to planning and policy making that| |all about regressing to primitive | |

|involves public participation. Its| |living conditions. It is about | |

|success depends on widespread | |understanding our situation, and | |

|understanding of the critical | |developing as communities in ways | |

|relationship between people and | |that are equitable, and make sense| |

|their environment and the will to | |ecologically and economically. | |

|make necessary changes. | | | |

| |Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility Sustainable development...[is] the process of building |

| |equitable, productive and participatory structures to increase the economic empowerment of communities and |

| |their surrounding regions. |

Adapted from a similar document formerly found on the Sustainability web site of the WA State Department of Ecology.

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