Introduction to the Concept of a Sustainable Environment


1.8.  Introduction to the Concept of a Sustainable Environment:

Sustainable environment is state in which the demands placed on the environment can be met without reducing its capacity to allow all people to live well, now and in the future. Environmental sustainability is defined as responsible interaction with the environment to avoid depletion or degradation of natural resources and allow for long-term environmental quality. The maintenance of the factors and practices that contribute to the quality of environment on a long-term basis.

While it may seem that environmental sustainability and sustainable development are one in the same, there is quite a few ways in which they diverge in their goals. They do have the same overall goal that of conserving natural resources and creating more energy efficient projects and practices. However, the two groups that are focused on them may find themselves in disagreement about what the priorities of actions are. Having a better understanding of how both concepts are different and at the same time similar can help on how to deal with both concepts.

The goal of environmental sustainability is to conserve natural resources and to develop alternate sources of power while reducing pollution and harm to the environment. For environmental sustainability, the state of the future – as measured in 50, 100 and 1,000 years is the guiding principle. Many of the projects that are rooted in environmental sustainability will involve replanting forests, preserving wetlands and protecting natural areas from resource harvesting. The biggest criticism of environmental sustainability initiatives is that their priorities can be at odds with the needs of a growing industrialized society.

Sustainable development is the organizing principle for meeting human development goals while at the same time, sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services upon which the economy and society depend. The desired result is a state of society where living conditions and resource use continue to meet human needs without undermining the integrity and stability of the natural system. Sustainable development can be classified as development that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

The goals of the two groups diverge when it comes to the development of endangered areas. For instance, there will be disagreements when it comes to developing construction practices on a wetland. The environmental sustainability focus would argue that the preservation of the wetland is more important than everything else. Sustainable development will show that by incorporating preservation areas, and contributing to the overall preservation of a different wetland area that the damage is balanced out. Sustainable development will also argue that the local economic benefits will lead to more funding to create environmental protection areas elsewhere.

The modern concept of sustainable development is derived mostly from the 1987 Brundtland Commission Report, it is also rooted in earlier ideas about sustainable forest management and twentieth century environmental concerns. As the concept developed, it has shifted to focus more on economic development, social development and environmental protection for future generations.


 Social

Bearable                       Equatable

Sustainable

Viable

Environmental                        Economic 

Fig – 1: Sustainable Development Realms

It has been suggested that "the term 'sustainability' should be viewed as humanity's target goal of human-ecosystem equilibrium while 'sustainable development' refers to the holistic approach and the temporal processes that lead us to the end point of sustainability". The modern economies are endeavoring to reconcile ambitious economic development and obligations of preserving the natural resources and ecosystem, the two are traditionally seen as of conflicting nature. Instead of holding climate change commitments and other sustainability measures as a drug to economic development, turning and leveraging them into market opportunities will do greater good. The economic development brought by such organized principles and practices in an economy is called Managed Sustainable Development.

The concept of sustainable development has been and still is subject to criticism. What, exactly, is to be sustained in sustainable development? It has been argued that there is no such thing as a sustainable use of a non-renewable resource, since any positive rate of exploitation will eventually lead to the exhaustion of earth's finite stock. The beginning of the concept of sustainable development began from United Nation’s organized international conference on human environment in Stockholm, Sweden from June 5th to 16th, in 1972 to discuss the issue of conservation of natural resources.

Sustainability can be defined as the practice of maintaining processes of productivity indefinitely whether natural or human made by replacing resources used with resources of equal or greater value without degrading or endangering natural biotic systems. Sustainable development ties together concern for the carrying capacity of natural systems with the social, political, and economic challenges faced by humanity. Sustainability science is the study of the concepts of sustainable development and environmental science. There is an additional focus on the present generations' responsibility to regenerate, maintain and improve planetary resources for use by future generations. Sustainable development has its roots in ideas about sustainable forest management which were developed in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

In response to a growing awareness of the depletion of timber resources in England, sowing and planting of trees had to be regarded as a national duty of every landowner, in order to stop the destructive over-exploitation of natural resources.

In 1962, Rachel Carson's book ‘Silent Spring’ lead to a developing environmental movement which drew attention to the relationship between economic growth and development and environmental degradation. In 1966 an essay titled as ‘The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth’ identified the need for the economic system to fit itself to the ecological system with its limited pools of resources. One of the first uses of the term sustainable in the contemporary sense was by the Club of Rome in 1972 in its classic report on the Limits to Growth, written by a group of scientists at MIT.

Describing the desirable "state of global equilibrium", the authors wrote: "We are searching for a model output that represents a world system that is sustainable without sudden and uncontrolled collapse and capable of satisfying the basic material requirements of all of its people." Following the Club of Rome report, an MIT research group prepared ten days of hearings on “Growth and Its Implication for the Future.” The first hearings ever held on sustainable development.

In 1980 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature published a ‘World Conservation Strategy’ that included, one of the first references to sustainable development as a global priority and introduced the term "sustainable development". Two years later, the United Nations World Charter for Nature raised five principles of conservation by which human conduct affecting nature is to be guided and judged.

In 1987 the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development released the report Our Common Future, commonly called the Brundtland Report. The report included what is now one of the most widely recognized definitions of sustainable development i.e.

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts: The concept of 'needs', in particular, the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs.”

Since the Brundtland Report, the concept of sustainable development has developed beyond the initial intergenerational framework to focus more on the goal of "socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable economic growth". In 1992, the UN Conference on Environment and Development published the Earth Charter, which outlines the building of a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century.

The action plan Agenda 21 for sustainable development identified information, integration, and participation as key building blocks to help countries achieve development that recognizes these interdependent pillars. It emphasizes that, in sustainable development everyone is a user and provider of information. It stresses the need to change from old sector-centered ways of doing business to new approaches that involve cross-sectoral co-ordination and the integration of environmental and social concerns into all development processes. Furthermore, Agenda 21 emphasizes on broad public participation in decision making as a fundamental prerequisite for achieving sustainable development.

Under the principles of the United Nations Charter the Millennium Declaration identified principles and treaties on sustainable development, including economic development, social development and environmental protection. Broadly defined, sustainable development is a systems approach to growth and development and to manage natural, produced, and social capital for the welfare of their own and future generations.

The term sustainable development as used by the United Nations incorporates both issues associated with land development and broader issues of human development such as education, public health, and standard of living. A 2013 study concluded that sustainability reporting should be reframed through the lens of four interconnected domains: ecology, economics, politics and culture. In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly formally adopted the "Universal, Integrated and Transformative" 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It is a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Sustainable Development Goals are as follows:
  1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere. 
  2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. 
  3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
  4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. 
  5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. 
  6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. 
  7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. 
  8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. 
  9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. 
  10. Reduce inequality within and among countries. 
  11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. 
  12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. 
  13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. 
  14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. 
  15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss. 
  16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. 
  17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development
 These goals are to be implemented and achieved in every country from the year 2016 to 2030 AD.


Reference:
  1. From: http://lexicon.ft.com/Term?term=environmental-sustainability (Retrieved 11/8/2018)
  2. From: https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/what-is-environmental-sustainability-and-sustainable-development.php (Retrieved 11/8/2018)
  3. From: https://www.environmentalscience.org/sustainability (Retrieved 11/8/2018)
  4. From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_development (Retrieved 11/8/2018)
  5. From: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs (Retrieved 11/8/2018)

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