Sustainability, Society and You
What do we think about Sustainability?
Defining Sustainability
Sarah Speight and Naomi Sykes
Before we get into the problems of defining sustainability, and its companion term,
sustainable development, here is just a reminder that in this case we are engaged upon a
positive exercise “Sustainability is a new idea to many people, and many find it hard to understand. But all
over the world there are people who have entered into the exercise of imagining and bringing
into being a sustainable world. They see it as a world to move toward not reluctantly, but
joyfully, not with a sense of sacrifice, but a sense of adventure. A sustainable world could be
very much better than the one we live in today.”
Donella H.Meadows, The Limits to Growth – the 30 year update
Sustainability is a commonly-used term in scientific research, education and politics around
the world. It is controversial, generating support and hostility in equal measure. There is no
one definition that everyone would agree on. If we look the word up in a Dictionary, we will
find meanings including support over an extended period, nourishment, conservation, the
achievement of balance.
Sustainability is most closely connected to the environment and to global issues such as
climate change, food security, water and waste management; scientists are working towards
solutions for how we can achieve sustainability in relation to these issues.
But sustainability is also increasingly used in connection with our personal development as
human beings, how we relate to each other, our attitudes towards equality and opportunity,
our abilities as individuals and communities to be proactive in our relationships with the
world around us in order to achieve nourishment, balance and longevity!
Here are just a few commonly used definitions of sustainability:
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
"Sustainable means using methods, systems and materials that won't deplete resources
or harm natural cycles" (Rosenbaum, 1993).

Sustainability "identifies a concept and attitude in development that looks at a site's
natural land, water, and energy resources as integral aspects of the development"
(Vieira, 1993)

"Sustainability integrates natural systems with human patterns and celebrates continuity, uniqueness and placemaking" (Early, 1993)

“Sustainable developments are those which fulfil present and future needs (WECD,
1987) while [only] using and not harming renewable resources and unique humanenvironmental systems of a site: [air], water, land, energy, and human ecology and/or
those of other [off-site] sustainable systems (Rosenbaum 1993 and Vieira 1993).”

“The quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources,
and thereby supporting long term ecological balance” Dictionary.com

‘Sustainable Development is more about new ways of thinking, than about science or
ecology. Whilst it involves the natural sciences and economics, it is primarily a matter
of culture.’ (UNESCO 2002 p.4)
“As can be seen, most commonly cited definitions refer to the ‘need to improve quality of life
for all without depleting the earth’s natural resources’ – pointing to inter-generational equity,
legacies for the future and responsibilities to the natural world” (Dr Alex Ryan, University of
Gloucestershire and Professor Geoffrey Samuel, Cardiff University).
Content used in a presentation created for ‘Sustainability and the Humanities:Shaping Culture
and Community for a Changing World’ event: sponsored by Cardiff University. Available
under Creative Commons, Attribution, Non-Commercial Share-a-like licence.
http://humbox.ac.uk/4307/ (Feb 2012)
However appealing sustainability is conceptually, it remains open to a variety of
interpretations, ideologies, and practices. For this reason the term is beginning to lose its
power and meaning. Popular opinion is essentially that summarised by social commentator,
Jonathan Meades, in his BBC 4 series On France:
“That universally preached, seldom practiced, utterly trite and entirely unrealistic doctrine of
sustainability”
And there is a growing number of examples that satirise ‘sustainability’
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Above image sourced from xkcd.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.5 license. http://xkcd.com/1007/
When did the terms “Sustainability” and “Sustainable Development” start to be widely
used?
(text and image in this section sourced from The Open University under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0
Licence. http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=4331
In 1972 an international conference held in Stockholm in Sweden attracted large numbers of
people from governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who felt they were
stakeholders in environmental issues. From that conference emerged a clear theme that
environment and development issues were inextricably linked. Around this time the term
‘sustainable development’ first started to appear.
In 1980 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
(IUCN), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP), all organisations that see themselves as dedicated to preventing
environmental catastrophe, produced the World Conservation Strategy. This strategy stressed
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the interdependence of conservation and development and called for the vitality and
productivity of the planet to be safeguarded.
In 1983 the Brandt Commission, chaired by the former West German Chancellor Willi
Brandt, reported on North/South relationships. The term ‘South’ in this context is or was
often used interchangeably with the terms ‘developing countries’ and ‘less developed
countries’. ‘North’ in this sense is used to apply to the rest, the so-called ‘developed’ or
‘industrialised’ world. With increased globalisation since 1983, while there are still many
development issues between regions, the boundaries have changed in some senses and the
divisions are considered at time of writing to be artificial and to cause unhelpful polarisation
and stereotyping in some sustainability situations. For instance the contrasts between rich and
poor occur within as well as between countries and there is considerable diversity in terms of
development within both South and North.
The Brandt line dividing North and South
Above image sourced from The Open University under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence.
http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=4331
As a result of recommendations from the Stockholm conference and Brandt Commission, the
World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED; also known as the
Brundtland Commission, after Gro Harlem Brundtland, the then Prime Minister of Norway,
who chaired the Commission), produced its report ‘Our Common Future’ in 1987 (World
Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), 1987 ). The Brundtland definition
of sustainable development became particularly well known.
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
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What this definition succinctly emphasises is that the core issue is one that involves trading
some present consumption or development or satisfaction with some aspect of the welfare or
development or satisfaction of future generations. This concern has deep emotional roots in
human beings, especially in people who have, or expect to have, children of their own.
Parents forego many types of current satisfaction in order to provide for the future of their
children – and this drive has clear biological and evolutionary advantages. Issues that threaten
the sacrifices made by parents generally raise very strong emotional reactions – reflecting the
high commitment and value placed on this concern for the future.
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Nottingham and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike UK 2.0 License
(BY-NC-SA).
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