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The Official Definition of Sustainable Development

The document discusses the origins and development of the concept of sustainable development. It provides key definitions, including the Brundtland Commission's definition from 1987 as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." It also discusses several economic, social, and environmental crises throughout the 20th century that increased awareness of the need for a more sustainable model of development.

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Wico Sy
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58 views3 pages

The Official Definition of Sustainable Development

The document discusses the origins and development of the concept of sustainable development. It provides key definitions, including the Brundtland Commission's definition from 1987 as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." It also discusses several economic, social, and environmental crises throughout the 20th century that increased awareness of the need for a more sustainable model of development.

Uploaded by

Wico Sy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Official Definition Of Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is the idea that human societies must live and meet their
needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs. The “official” definition of sustainable development was developed for the first
time in the Brundtland Report in 1987.
Specifically, sustainable development is a way of organizing society so that it can exist
in the long term. This means taking into account both the imperatives present and those
of the future, such as the preservation of the environment and natural resources or
social and economic equity.

 Related:
 What Are The 100 Companies With The Best CSR Reputation?

How Did The Idea Of Sustainable Development Get


Relevant?
The industrial revolution is connected to the rise of the idea of sustainable development.
From the second half of the 19th century, Western societies started to discover that
their economic and industrial activities had a significant impact on the environment and
the social balance. Several ecological and social crises took place in the world and rose
awareness that a more sustainable model was needed.
Here are some examples of the economic and social crises that shook the world in the
twentieth century:

 1907: the American banking crisis


 1923: the crisis of American hyperinflation
 1929: the financial crisis of the 1930s begins
 1968: the worldwide protests against bureaucratic elites
 1973 and 1979: oil shocks
 1982: the debt shock of developing countries

And some examples of ecological crises:

 1954: Rongelap nuclear fallout


 1956: Mercury crisis of Minamata
 1957: Torrey Canyon oil spill
 1976: Seveso disaster
 1984: Bhopal disaster
 1986: Chernobyl nuclear disaster
 1989: Exxon Valdez oil spill
 1999: Erika disaster
 But also: global warming, air pollution, the issue of the ozone layer, the loss
of biodiversity…
The Tragedy of Commons And Sustainable
Development [1968]

In 1968 the ecologist and philosopher Garret Hardin wrote an essay entitled
the tragedy of the commons. He argued that if individuals act independently, rationally
and focused on pursuing their individual interests, they’d end up going against the
common interests of their communities and exhaust the planet’s natural resources.
In this way, human free access and unlimited consumption of finite resource would
extinguish these same resources. Hardin believed that since man is compelled to
procreated unlimitedly the Earth resources would eventually get overexploited. To his
eyes, mankind needed to radically change its way of using common resources to avoid
a disaster in the future – this would be the way to keep on a sustainable development
track.

 Related:
 What Are Renewable Energies?
 Hydrogen VS Electric Cars: What’s More Sustainable?

Limits To Growth And Sustainable Development


[1972]
A few years after Hardin’s essay, in 1972, Meadows et al., commissioned by the Club of
Rome, ran a computer simulation that aimed to predict the consequences of what
could happen in a planet with limited resources.
The interactions between 5 different dimensions – world population growth,
industrialization, pollution generation, food production, and nonrenewable resource
depletion – were analyzed, considering a scenario where these variables grew
exponentially and technology’s ability to increase resources was linear.
The strongest ending scenario was that an economic and social collapse would happen
by the end of the 21st century if man imposes no limits to growth. After more than 4
decades, these predictions seem to be right when it comes to pollution and it’s
consequences – threatening sustainable development.

 Related:
 Is It True That We Need To Stop Having Babies To Be Truly
Sustainable?
 Planet VS Economy: How Coronavirus Is Unraveling A Dysfunctional
System

1st UN Conference On The Environment And


Sustainable Development [1972]
As the world’s knowledge of global politics evolved the first historical conferences were
organized. In 1972, it took place in Stockholm the UN Conference on the environment –
the first big world leaders meeting organized by the UN to discuss the human impact
on the environment and how it was related to economic development. One of the
main goals of this gathering was to find a common outlook and common principles to
inspire and guide the world’s population to preserve the “human environment”.

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