Sustainable Development: Definitions

Brundtland Report: "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
The Brundtland Report's definition of sustainable development is considered a very strong definition, although it does use the world development in it.  This definition supports economic and social development, while emphasizing the need to protect our natural resources and environment.  

3 Pillars of Sustainable Development: 

The three pillars of sustainable development are used to present a visual of what is ultimately achieved by sustainable development.  Sustainable development evenly promotes social development, environmental protection, and economic development. The social pillar focuses on human inequality, social injustice, and poverty amongst the vast populations inhabiting Earth. Since resources are inherently limited and our environment is valuable, we must make sure we are protecting the natural resources our planet has supplied.  Examples of this type of "preserving behavior," so to speak, include renewable energy sources, recycling, reductions in fossil fuels and the harmful effects of processes such as deforestation.  While taking initiatives to support both social equity and environmental protection, we must also equally promote economic growth.  Economic development means creating a system in which our resources are allocated efficiently and fairly.  Sustainable development thus requires that the needs of these three pillars are properly met.  


World Bank: World Bank defines sustainable development as "basing developmental and environmental policies on a comparison of costs and benefits and on careful economic analysis that will strengthen environmental protection and lead to rising and sustainable levels of welfare."

Textbook definition:  An Introduction to Sustainable Development believes that the three components of sustainable development (as stated above) are of equal importance and are critical for achieving sustainable development. The textbook provides three operation criteria for sustainable development:

1. Economic objectives should not be maximized without satisfying environmental and social constraints.
2. Environmental benefits should not necessarily be maximized without satisfying economic and social constraints.
3. Social benefits should not maximized without satisfying economic and environmental constraints.

These three criteria reiterate the idea that economic, environmental, and social benefits must all be maximized under the constraint of the others. 


Our own definition: As you can see above, the term "sustainable development" is interpreted in many ways and has many different components. After researching and discussing the above definitions, we believe sustainable development to be a fundamentally dynamic phenomenon in which we, as human beings, strive to balance competing needs on the basis of understanding a world of opportunity costs and irrefutable limitations (whether socially, economically, or environmentally.)