Sustainable development is the process of planning, designing and constructing facilities that cause no overall environmental burden. It can be seen as a "best fit" of the built environment to the natural environment.
Poverty and sustainable development
International development can be boosted or held back by sustainable development concerns, depending on the context.
On the positive side, it can mean greater efficiency and lower resource use.
On the negative side, an excessive concern for the environmental impact of the poor could mean neglecting pressing needs, and may be inappropriate when their resource use is well below that of the rich. (See Tata Nano: The Paradox of Global Innovation, WorldChanging.com, blog post and comments, for a discussion of this issue.)
Brundtland Commissions
The definition of sustainable development has generally encapsulated some version of the Brundtland Commissions’W concept:
“development that meets the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
(World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987:43). World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED).1987. Our Common Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press.