SUSTAINABILITY
Be Informed
Sustainable development has been defined in many ways, but the most frequently quoted definition is from Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report: "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
The Brundtland Report was the report commissioned by the UN in 1983 through the World Commission on Environment and Development, whose task was to propose environmental strategies for sustainable development. It provided a definition and analysis of the concept of sustainable development, and the political changes it requires, and emphasised the connection between environmental protection and economic development and placed sustainable development on the global political agenda.
The problem with that accepted definition of sustainable development, apart from it being a bureaucratic broad generalisation, is that it does not address the overuse of resources. For example, the continued use of fossil fuels is not adequately addressed.
Our view of sustainability, is that any single use product must be naturally sustainable, i.e. timber, or havea low energy input to recycle.
The definition of sustainability that we like best is "avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance"