Definition and History of Sustainable Development

4/3/2020 Sustainable Development Definition - History, Importance and Examples
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Being
Development –
What Is It?
De nition,
History,
Evolution,
Importance And
Examples
Last modi ed on 2018, 21th
What is the de nition of sustainable HOW USEFUL IS IT?
development? How has sustainability

evolved and changed throughout the years
and what are its most important
milestones? What shapes sustainable
75
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development today? EN |
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THE OFFICIAL DEFINITION OF

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
HOW DID THE IDEA OF SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT GET RELEVANT?
THE TRAGEDY OF COMMONS AND

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT [1968]
LIMITS TO GROWTH AND SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT [1972]
1ST UN CONFERENCE ON THE

ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT [1972]
THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX

AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT [1980]
HDI & THE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT -

ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
THE BRUNDTLAND REPORT AND

CLIMATE CHANGE & SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT [1988]
THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE &

THE MILLENNIUM ECOSYSTEM

ASSESSMENT AND SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT [2001]
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT TODAY
The Of cial Organisationspro les EN Login |
De nition Of
Health
Sustainable
Planet Energy & &
Transport Well-
Work &
Education
Citizenship Eco &
Business
Consumption Tech Cities &
Territories
Development Being
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 “of cial” de nition of sustainable
development was developed for the rst time
in the Brundtland Report in 1987.
Speci cally, 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
signi cant 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. EN |
Here are some examples of the economic and
social crises that shook
Healththe world in the
Energy
twentieth
Planet & &
century: Work & Citizenship Eco & Consumption Tech Cities &
Being
1907: the American banking crisis

1923: the crisis of American hyperin ation
1929: the nancial 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]
sustainable development important
examples goals
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 EN |

pursuing their individual interests, they’d end
up going against the common interests of
Health
Energy &
their communities
Planet &and exhaust
Work &the planet’s
Citizenship Eco & Consumption Tech Cities &
natural resources. Being
In this way, human’s free
access and unlimited consumption of nite
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 EN |

growth. After more than 4 decades, these
predictions seem Health
to be right when it comes
Energy
to pollution
Planet & it’s
and & consequences
Work & – Citizenship Eco & Consumption Tech Cities &
threatening sustainable
Being development.
Related:
Is It True That We Need To Stop
Having Babies To Be Truly Sustainable?
1st UN Conference On
The Environment And
Sustainable
Development [1972]
As the world’s knowledge of global politics
evolved the rst historical conferences were
organized. In 1972, it took place in Stockholm
the UN Conference on the environment – the
rst 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 nd a common
outlook and common principles to inspire
and guide the world’s population to preserve
the “human environment”.
Related:
Important World Conferences On
Sustainable Development
The Human
Development Index
And Sustainable
Development [1980]
sustainable development Organisationspro

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examples goals
Once the idea thatHealth
our planet had limits that
neededEnergy
Planet & &
to be respected Worktogether
grew, & with
the idea that progress
Beingisn’t only about
economic growth, integrated solutions
started to develop – as is the case with the
Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI is
nowadays a statistical tool that measures
countries’ economic and social achievements.
To do so, it uses dimensions such as health,
education, nancial ows, mobility or human
security, among others. Every year the UN
Development Programme ranks countries
based on the HDI report released together
with their annual report. It works as a periodic
way of monitoring the development levels of
countries.
Related:
What Are The World’s Greenest
Cities?
Why Do We Need Resilient Cities?
HDI & The Ecological

Footprint – Achieving
Sustainable
Development
Ideally, humankind should get to a point
where at least the minimum HDI is achieved
and live below the maximum ecological
footprint per capita. Living above the
minimum HDI would guarantee that human
needs such as education or health are
satis ed. An ecological footprint represents
the maximum limit of consumption per
person according to Earth’s ecological
capacity. Living below it wouldn’t
compromise the future generations, as the
planet would be able to regenerate itself. If we EN |

could manage to keep above the minimum
HDI and below theHealth
maximum ecological
Energy
footprint
Planet & & (a number
per capita Work &
that isCitizenship Eco & Consumption Tech Cities &
decreasing as the Being
human population
increases) we’d be on track for a sustainable
future.
But the fact is that every year the Earth
overshoot day comes earlier. This day
represents the date when humankind gets in
debt with the planet. Why? Because our
demand for ecological resources in a given
year has been exceeding what the planet can
regenerate in that same year. We’re keeping
this de cit because we’re using more
ecological resources than the planet can
handle to lose. At the same time, we’re also
not taking proper care of our waste. We’re
dealing with it in a linear way, in opposition to
nature, where everything follows a circular
approach. Today’s consumption habits are a
big threat to sustainable development.
Related:
What Is The Circular Economy?
China Has Banned Waste
Imports. Where Is The World’s Trash
Going To Now?
Our Food System Is Broken – Here’s
How To Fix It
The Brundtland
Report And
Sustainable
Development [1987]
The Brundtland report, also known as <Our

Common Future>, gave the most recognized
and widely accepted de nition of the term
<sustainable development> in 1987. Following EN |

this report, “the human ability to ensure that
the current development
Health meets the needs of
Planet Energy
the present & & compromising
without Work & the ability
of future generations to meet their own
Being
needs” was the rst widely accepted
de nition of sustainable development.
The World Commission on the Environment
and Development also stood out that
sustainable development needed to consider
that developing has limitations. According to
the organization, the “present state of
technology and the social organization on
environmental resources, together with the
limited ability of the biosphere to absorb the
effects of human activities” impose
limitations on sustainable development.
Climate Change &

Sustainable
Development [1988]
As the consciousness about the impact that
climate change could have on the planet and
on human life grew, the International Panel
on Climate Change was created by the UN
Development Programme and the World
Meteorological Organization. It’s purpose was
(and still is) to develop and share knowledge
about the impact of human activities on
climate change. It also aims to explore the
causes, consequences, and ways of ghting
climate change.
CO2 and methane are gases that exist to help
the Earth keep its ideal temperature and
guarantee life as we know it. Nonetheless, the
excessive production of these gases leads to
an increase in the planet’s temperature. This
happens because part of the heat the Earth
irradiates and that’d go to space keeps

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trapped in the atmosphere.
Health
More info in our article:
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the history
Education
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the impact of climate
Being change.
The Triple Bottom

Line & Sustainable
Development [1994]
The triple bottom line is an important
assumption that’s part of the foundations of
sustainable development. It was rst used by
John Elkington, the founder of a sustainability
consultancy rm. This expression means that
companies should consider 3 different
bottom lines in their businesses – and not
only, as was usual at the time (and still is in
many companies today), care about the pro t
and loss account. This means that
organizations should also measure how
socially responsible the operations across
their value-chain are. In addition, Elkington
combined a third concern: that companies
also needed to measure their environmental
impact on the planet. In the end, the idea is
business needs to be concerned about its
impact on people and planet – and not only
nance and pro t.
Related:
The Top 100 Companies With The
Best CSR Reputation
Tips For A Great CSR Reporting
What Is Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR)?
The Millennium
Ecosystem
Assessment And Organisationspro les EN Login |
Sustainable Health
Development
Planet Energy & &
Transport Well-
[2001]
Work &
Education
Citizenship Eco &
Business
Consumption Tech Cities &
Territories
Being
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was

a 4 years long investigation that started in
2001 and was requested by the UN. Over 1200
researchers gathered to assess the
consequences that ecosystems’ changes had
on human well-being. Finding the scienti c
basis for action needed to improve the
conservation and sustainable use of
ecosystems was another goal.
The main ndings of the investigation were
that:
Humans have changed ecosystems more

quickly and widely than ever before. This
resulted in a substantial and largely
irreversible biodiversity loss;
The changes made to ecosystems
improved human well-being and the
economy but have harmed the planet and
society. It wasn’t only biodiversity
decreasing at a high rate. Poverty was also
still affecting many communities and
climate change increased the risk of
nonlinear changes;
The degradation of ecosystems services
would probably get worse over the 21st
century;
The changes needed to preserve the
ecosystem’s degradation and meet the
increasing demand for services could still
be met. Nonetheless, it would involve
signi cant changes in policies across the
public and private sectors.
Related content:
Why Are Forests So Important And

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What Can You Do To Protect Them?
Health
Energy & & Work & Eco & Cities &
Sustainable
Planet
Transport Well-
Being
Education
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Business
Consumption Tech
Territories
Development Today
Today’s framework on sustainable
development is quite strong although there is
still a huge way to go. The latest IPCC report
demonstrated that big changes will need to
happen quickly regarding the reduction of
CO2 emissions to keep the Earth’s
temperature below 2ºC and prevent its
devastating impacts. There are many actors
working with different audiences in different
areas of sustainability. They share the same
goal – to raise awareness on this topic and to
create conditions for it to grow and develop.
One of the main players is the United
Nations, where different teams actively work
on multiple campaigns such as
#beatplasticpollution or #solvedifferent,
apart from organizing the meetings between
the world leaders.
On the business side, the World Business
Council for Sustainable Development
(WBCSD) helps its member companies to
accelerate their businesses transition to
create a sustainable world. There are also
some certi cations that reward (mostly
through a stamp recognition) the businesses
with the best practices for the planet, such as
the B-Corp movement, the Rainforest
Alliance, the Fairtrade Foundation or the
Conscious Capitalism Movement.
At the same time, entities like the Elen
MacArthur Foundation are opening the way
when it comes to the circular economy and
how societies and businesses can align how
they use natural resources with the way
nature does it Aligning businesses’


Definition and History of Sustainable Development

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4/3/2020 Sustainable Development Definition - History, Importance and Examples

youmatter / De nitions Organisationspro les EN Login |

What is the de nition of sustainable HOW USEFUL IS IT?

development? How has sustainability

THE OFFICIAL DEFINITION OF

HOW DID THE IDEA OF SUSTAINABLE

THE TRAGEDY OF COMMONS AND

LIMITS TO GROWTH AND SUSTAINABLE

1ST UN CONFERENCE ON THE

THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX

HDI & THE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT -

THE BRUNDTLAND REPORT AND

CLIMATE CHANGE & SUSTAINABLE

THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE &

THE MILLENNIUM ECOSYSTEM

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT TODAY

The Of cial Organisationspro les EN Login |

Sustainable development is the idea that

How Did The Idea Of

1907: the American banking crisis

And some examples of ecological crises:

1954: Rongelap nuclear fallout

act independently, rationally and focused on EN |

Limits To Growth And

the 21st century if man imposes no limits to EN |

sustainable development Organisationspro

HDI & The Ecological

planet would be able to regenerate itself. If we EN |

The Brundtland report, also known as <Our

<sustainable development> in 1987. Following EN |

Climate Change &

irradiates and that’d go to space keeps

The Triple Bottom

Assessment And Organisationspro les EN Login |

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was

Humans have changed ecosystems more

Why Are Forests So Important And

nature does it Aligning businesses’

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