“Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long time”
-Jeffry Ramsey, “On Not Defining Sustainability”, Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics (2015).
As people became more and more aware of environmental pollution in the 1960s and 1970s, the discussions on sustainability and sustainable development arise. In the 1970s, arise the concerns for environmental issues like natural ecosystems, natural resources and the human environment. It later extended to all systems that support life on Earth, including human society. A focus on reducing negative impacts on the environment that improves environmental sustainability. A brief history of sustainability includes:
1960’s – DDT pesticide.
1970’s – chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) depleting the ozone layer.
2000’s – greenhouse gases, climate change, biodiversity, ecosystem services, land degradation, pollution (air, water, land), marine plastic pollution, ocean acidification.
The Oxford Dictionary of English defines sustainability as “the degree to which a process or enterprise is able to be maintained or continued while avoiding the long-term depletion of natural resources”. The Sustainability Theory and Conceptual Considerations (2016) states that “Sustainability can be defined as the capacity to maintain or improve the state and availability of desirable materials or conditions over the long term.”
In the broader context, sustainability is more than just “maintaining or improving”, “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… “[It is] concerns for social equity and economic development.” [University of Alberta: What is sustainability?” August 2022.]
Sustainability is “the long-term viability of a community, set of social institutions, or societal practice… [It is] 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.”[Encyclopedia Britannica]
Sustainability includes, but is not limited to, environmental, economic, and social issues. The idea of sustainability can guide decisions at the global, national, organizational, and individual levels.