Sustainable Development

Critical thinking vs. Reproductive thinking

The most widely used definition of Sustainable Development is the one coined in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development (or Bruntland Commission) in its report “Our Common Future”. The report explicitly recognizes the right of all human beings to satisfy their basic needs, but also to pursue opportunities for a better life, as a major objective of development. On the other hand, it goes on to state that improved living standards beyond the basic minimum for all are only sustainable “if consumption standards everywhere have regard for long-term sustainability”.

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs“
Our Common Future, 1987

Sustainable Development: Key concepts

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; 

• the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs.

Sustainable Development: central elements

The satisfaction of human needs and aspirations in the major objective of development. The essential needs of vast numbers of people in developing countries for food, clothing, shelter, jobs – are not being met, and beyond their basic needs these people have legitimate aspirations for an improved quality of life. A world in which poverty and inequity are endemic will always be prone to ecological and other crises. Sustainable development requires meeting the basic needs of all and extending to all the opportunity to satisfy their aspirations for a better life. Living standards that go beyond the basic minimum are sustainable only if consumption standards everywhere have regard for long-term  sustainability. Yet many of us live beyond the world’s ecological means, for instance in our patterns of energy use. Perceived needs are socially and culturally determined, and sustainable development requires the promotion of values that encourage consumption standards that are within the bounds of the ecological possible and to which all can reasonably aspire.

The report also set the basis for the recognition of the three central elements of Sustainable Development: the Social, Environmental and Economic ones.

These central elements constitute the basis for all the mechanism and strategies put in place to achieve Sustainable Development. They are interdependent, meaning that sustainaility happens when all these three dimensions are equally addressed, both in terms of adequate policies, practices and resoources allocated.

The Sustainable Development: the three central elements

• Social (people): Social Sustainability includes aspects related to the human sphere, such as the quality of life, social inclusion, participation to political processes, income and food security.

• Environmental (planet): Environmental Sustainability deals with the consrvation of the ecosystem, protection of species, improved quality of air, water and land and the use of resources.

Economic (profit): Economic sustainability looks into opportunities for growth, the level of GDP, employement, safe working conditions for alla and sustainable production.

Sustainable Development: Social

Social sustainability encompasses notions of equity, empowerment, accessibility, participation, cultural identity and institutional stability. The concept implies that people matter since development is about people. Basically, social sustainability connotes a system of social organization that alleviates poverty. However, social sustainability relates to the nexus between social conditions such as poverty and environmental destruction. In this regard, the theory of social sustainability’ posits that the alleviation of poverty should neither entail unwarranted environmental destruction nor economic instability. It should aim to alleviate poverty within the existing environmental and economic resource base of the society.In Saith’s (2006) opinion, at the social level sustainability entails fostering the development of people, communities and cultures to help achieve meaningful life, drawing on proper healthcare, education gender equality, peace and stability across the globe. It is argued that social sustainability is not easy to achieve because the social dimension seems complicated and overwhelming. Unlike the environmental and economic systems, the dynamics within the social system are highly intangible and cannot be easily modelled. As Everest-Phillip puts it, “the definition of success within the social system is that “people are not subjected to conditions that undermine their capacity to meet their needs”

According to Kolk (2016) social sustainability is not about ensuring that everyone’s needs are met. Rather, its aims at providing enabling conditions for everyone to have the capacity to realize their needs, if they so desire. Anything that impedes this capacity is considered a barrier, and needs to be addressed in order for individuals, organization or community to make progress towards social sustainability. Understanding the nature of social dynamics and how these structures emerge from a systems perspective is of great importance to social sustainability. Above all social sustainability also encompasses many issues such as human rights, gender equity and equality, public participation and rule of law all of which promote peace and social stability for sustainable development.

Sustainable Development: Environmental

Environmental sustainability is about the natural environment and how it remains productive and resilient to support human life. It relates to ecosystem integrity and carrying capacity of natural environment. The implication is that natural resources must be harvested no faster than they can be regenerated while waste must be emitted no faster than they can be assimilated. 

However, the quest for unbridled growth is imposing ever greater demands on the earth system and placing ever greater strain on these limits because technological advancement may fail to support exponential growth. The effects of climate change, for instance, provide a convincing argument for the need for environmental sustainability. 

The current rate of biodiversity loss exceeds the natural rate of extinction (UNSD, 2018c). The boundaries of the world’s biomes are expected to change with climate change as species are expected to shift to higher latitudes and altitudes and as global vegetation cover changes. If species are not able to adjust to unfamiliar geographical distributions, their chances of survival will be reduced. It is predicted that, by the year 2080, about 20% of coastal wetlands could be lost due to sea-level rise (UNSD, 2018c).

Sustainable Development: Economic

Economic sustainability implies a system of production that satisfies present consumption levels without compromising future needs. Traditionally, economists assuming that the supply of natural resources was unlimited, placed undue emphasis on the capacity of the market to allocate resources efficiently. They also believed that economic growth would be accompanied by the technological advancement to replenish natural resources destroyed in the production process. However, it has been realized that natural resources are not infinite; besides not all of them can be replenished or are renewable. The growing scale of the economic system has overstretched the natural resource base, prompting a rethink of the traditional economic postulations. This has prompted many academicians to question the feasibility of uncontrolled growth and consumption.

According to Dernbach, (1993), there are guiding frameworks by which transactions are evaluated and decisions about economic activities are made. Three main activities that are carried out in an economy are production, distribution and consumption but the accounting framework used to guide and evaluate the economy with regard to these activities grossly distorts values and this does not augur well for society and the environment. Dernbach (2003) had earlier argued that, due to population growth, human needs like food, clothing, housing increase, but the means and resources available in the world cannot be increased to meet the requirements forever. Furthermore, others economists argue that, as the main concern seems to be on economic growth, important cost components like the impact of depletion and pollution, for example, are ignored while increasing demand for goods and services continues to drive markets and infringe destructive effects of the environment (UNSD, 2018c). Economic sustainability, therefore, requires that decisions are made in the most equitable and fiscally sound way possible, while considering the other aspects of sustainability.