Sustainability
Trying to define sustainability can be challenging, because there are multiple definitions of it.
The incredibly important 1987 United Nations Brundtland Report “Our Common Future”, defined sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
The dictionary further defines sustainability as the ability to maintain or support a process over time, or the ability to endure and survive in an environment for a long time (i.e. the ability of humankind, animal and plant ecosystems and different types of planet earth requirements, to endure and survive in an environment for a long time).
It frequently places a particular focus on environmental goals- e.g. the Oxford dictionary defines sustainability as “avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance”).
Other sources define sustainability as covering social, environmental and economic goals more equally.
For example, some sources define sustainability as “sustainable development”, e.g. sustainability as the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which are described in more detail on this website and online.
Other sources define sustainability as covering social, environmental and economic goals that are wider than the Sustainable Development Goals (which means more choice of what to expand on). For example, Investopedia writes that sustainability covers planet, people, and profit goals- i.e environmental, social, and economic sustainability goals in a broader sense.
Examples of this include Corporate Sustainability- Harvard Business School defines this as being for business contexts and covering one or both of (1) the effect a business has on the environment, and (2) the effect a business has on society, and the Triple Bottom Line (economic, social, and environmental goals). Corporate sustainability emerged as a component of corporate ethics in response to public concerns of long-term damage caused by too much focus on short-term profits (Investopedia).
It seems common online to initially define sustainability as social, environmental and economic goals, but to place the largest percentage of efforts on environmental goals. This could be because a large % of businesses fail within 5 and 10 years (up to 67% within 10 years), but the world is completely dependent on the environment for thousands of years into the future. Examples of sustainability in this sense include: sourcing products from fair-trade organizations, increasing energy efficiency, lowering energy usage, cutting emissions, and ensuring their physical waste is disposed of properly and with a smaller carbon footprint would qualify as moves toward sustainability.
For example:
Companies have also set sustainability goals such as a commitment to zero-waste packaging by a certain year, or to reduce overall emissions by a certain percentage.
“Many businesses and governments have committed to sustainable goals, such as reducing their environmental footprints and conserving resources.” and “Some investors are actively embracing sustainability investments, known as "green investments." (Investopedia)
The concept of "environmental sustainability" adds greater emphasis on the life support systems, such as the atmosphere or soil, that must be maintained for economic production or human life to even occur.
In contrast, social sustainability focuses on the human effects of economic systems, and the category includes attempts to eradicate poverty and hunger, as well as to combat inequality.
Other sources define sustainability as mainly an environmental area- it could be that a lot of sources use the word sustainability in place of the word environmental sustainability, or as a shorthand for the term environmental sustainability.
However, the dictionary defines sustainability as “the avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance”, so the term can correctly be used to refer to environmental sustainability as well as to overall sustainability.
So how should you think of the overall word sustainability?
Sustainability covers four ideas:
“Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”, according to the 1987 UN Brundtland Report “Our Common Future”.
This is supported by the dictionary definitions of sustainability as “the ability to maintain or support a process over time”, or “the ability to endure and survive in an environment for a long time”
(i.e. the ability of humankind, animal and plant ecosystems and different types of planet earth requirements to endure and survive for a long time).
Sustainability as “planet, people, and profits” goals
Sustainability as the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which were voted on as international priorities in 2015, and are described further on this website and online.
Sustainability as environmental, societal and economic “planet, people, and profits” goals that are wider than the Sustainable Development Goals (so there is more choice of potential goals that you can work on)
Sustainability as Corporate Responsibility (businesses improving the effect they have on the environment, and/or societal goals) and the Triple Bottom Line (businesses improving the effect they have on long-term environmental, societal and economic goals)
Sustainability as being environmental sustainability- e.g.
The dictionary definition of sustainability as “the avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance”.
Sustainability as covering societal, environmental and economic goals, but recognizing that the largest percentage of focus need to be on environmental sustainability- e.g.
A greater emphasis on life support systems, such as the atmosphere or soil, that must be maintained for economic production or human life to even occur.
Examples of sustainability include: sourcing products from fair-trade organizations, reducing overall emissions by a certain percentage, increasing energy efficiency, lowering energy usage, conserving other types of resources, commitment to zero-waste packaging by a certain year, ensuring their physical waste is disposed of properly.
In contrast, social sustainability focuses on the human effects of economic goals, such as attempts to eradicate poverty and hunger and to combat inequality (Investopedia)
So how should you think of the word sustainability?
It depends on your context:
If you’re in a business environment, you will probably be referring to Corporate Sustainability, the Triple Bottom Line, or ways that you can improve environmental, societal, economic, or long-term effects of the business on the above and initiatives that the business wants to create.
You can use the word sustainability to refer to only the ability of future generations to have adequate lives, although you would need to clarify this.
You can use the word sustainability to refer to only environmental sustainability, although you would need to clarify that you were referring to environmental sustainability.
You can use the word sustainability to refer to environmental, societal and economic goals, whether the 17 Sustainable Development Goals or broader environmental, societal and economic goals, but you would need to clarify this.
Or you could use an overall definition of that sustainability refers to all of the following:
Environmental, societal and economic goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals but much broader than this
The largest focus should be on environmental goals, unless you specifically say environmental sustainability
A special emphasis on the long-term and future generations-
so, improving current environmental, societal and economic goals
and especially, especially, especially %s to improve really long-term environmental, societal and economic goals (being aware that 67% of businesses fail within 10 years (and a lot fail within 5 years), so economic goals is a much wider idea that helps the wider economic priorities as well.
What are ways to interact with the information to the left?
The 7+7,,7 small efforts (i.e. at least 2 seconds on something hard each) described in Climate Change Article 2 are an excellent way to approach information like this (and the connected actions) is a gentle yet highly motivating way to do this.
A good starting point for interacting with this Article is finding 10 high potential climate change areas per week (within your 7+7 small efforts on something hard, or within your development time), and helping to advocate for these regularly (and safely) via social media, to understand these better, and potentially to apply some of these yourself.
Areas that also regularly need %s are
Persuading the 8 billion to do 7+7,,7 climate change (7+7) and sustainability (,,7) small efforts per week, plus any development %s if they choose to, especially around preventing tipping points (which are prevented by specific knowledge of them and by applying the largest preventions as soon as achievable, % by % by %)
Persuading the world of tech people to regularly add %s to speed up climate change and sustainability tech (to make up for the poorest 4 billion people increasing in wealth to 2050 and consuming a lot more- the main solution is rapidly increased climate change tech)
Regular social media ripples for any of the above to persuade the 8 billion, being mindful of safety and carefulness.
