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What is meant by Sustainable Development
and Sustainability?
In 1987, The World Commission on Environment
and Development chaired by the Prime Minister of Norway, Mrs Gro
Harlem Brundtland, published a report Our Common Future (The Brundtland
Report) which brought the concept of sustainable development onto
the international agenda. It also provided the most commonly used
definition of sustainable development describing it as
"Development
which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their own needs"
This principle has been incorporated in
the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties on European Union, as well
as in the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21, adopted by the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), meeting in Rio
de Janeiro 3 to 14 June 1992. The European Community and its Member
States subscribed to the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21 and committed
themselves to the rapid implementation of the principal measures
agreed at UNCED.
The
Bruntland report described seven strategic imperatives for sustainable
development: reviving growth; changing the quality of growth; meeting
essential needs for jobs, food, energy, water and sanitation; ensuring
a sustainable level of population; conserving and enhancing the
resource base; reorienting technology and managing risk; merging
environment and economics in decision-making. It also emphasized
that the state of our technology and scoial organization, particularly
a lack of integrated social planning, limits the world's ability
to meet human needs now and in the future.
Principles of Sustainability:
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Recognise your ability to act sustainably
in all you do |
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Play an active role in promoting
more sustainable practices |
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Through education, promote a behavioural
change which exemplifies sustainable practices |
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Do not compromise the possibilities
of future generations through unsustainable activities |
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Encourage consideration of alternative
and more sustainable solutions, strategies and perspectives
in addressing concepts, problems or issues in business, government
and communities. |
Guiding steps towards sustainability:
1. |
Develop an environment which supports
human dignity through gender and racial equality and promotes
intergenerational respect. |
2. |
Develop honesty and integrity in
daily life. |
3. |
Encourage the fair distribution
of wealth. |
4. |
Work to strengthen local communities
and safeguard the health and safety of all. |
5. |
Commit to maintaining and enhancing the integrity and biodiversity
of the natural environment |
6. |
Use natural resources, such as water and land wisely and aim
to reduce consumption. |
7. |
Refuse, reduce, reuse, repair and recycle. |
8. |
Where possible buy “green” products, locally produced
with reduced packaging. |
9. |
Understand the synergies between advances in technology and
behavioural change to achieve sustainability. |
10. |
Encourage ethical business practices. |
11. |
Develop business strategies which promote good corporate governance. |
12. |
Encourage financial success through openness and transparency. |
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