What is Sustainability?
Sustainability has many definitions but the basic principles and concepts remain constant: balancing a growing economy, protection for the environment, and social responsibility, so they together lead to an improved quality of life for ourselves and future generations.
"Sustainable" means to create and maintain conditions, under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic, and other requirements of present and future generations of Americans...
President George W. Bush
January 24, 2007
(Executive Order #13423)
Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
UN World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED)
"Our Common Future"
(The Brundtland Report) |
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History of the development of Sustainability in the United States
Definitions of Sustainability: Quotations from leaders in Sustainability
Region 10's Environmental Justice program addresses community concerns about environmental problems