{"id":9829,"key":"Sustainable_development","title":"Sustainable development","latest":{"id":1209598,"timestamp":"2025-11-28T02:45:23Z"},"content_model":"wikitext","license":{"url":"https://www.appropedia.org/Appropedia:Copyrights","title":"CC-BY-SA-4.0"},"source":"'''Sustainable development''' can be seen as a \"best fit\" of the [[built environment]] to the natural environment. More accurately, it is the process of planning, designing and constructing in a way to reduce the overall environmental burden.\n\nAs the human population grows so does the the total consumption, material and energy. This, as it is the sum of the consumption of each person. Put another way, it is average consumption multiplied by population. As such, sustainable development also means that the population is kept at the same level or under the sustainable population limit.\n\nSustainable development is also used more broadly to describe [[Finance|financially]] and [[Culture|culturally]] sustainable development - that is, it accounts for all the financial needs and cultural [[context]]. This is closely related to the idea of [[appropriate development]].\n\n== Poverty and sustainable development ==\n\n[[International development]] can be boosted or held back by [[sustainable development]] concerns, depending on the context.\n\nOn the positive side, it can mean greater [[efficiency]] and lower resource use.\n\nOn 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 [http://web.archive.org/web/20121206053541/http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007782.html Tata Nano: The Paradox of Global Innovation], WorldChanging.com, blog post and comments, for a discussion of this issue.)\n\n== Brundtland Commissions ==\n\nThe definition of '''sustainable development''' has generally encapsulated some version of the Brundtland Commissions'{{W|Brundtland Commissions}} concept:\n\n<big>\"development that meets the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs\"</big>\n\n(World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987:43).\nWorld Commission on Environment and Development (WCED).1987. Our Common Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press.\n\n== Questioning conventional models of development ==\n\nThe article [http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in:80/node/2366/ ''Sustainable development is an oxymoron'']<ref>Note: Marked as [[open license]], but from a copyright source. Do not import extended portions to Appropedia</ref> argues that development programs have sometimes had a negative impact, by not only failing to achieve their aims, but also undermining [[simple living]].\n\nThe \"[[zero growth]]\" and \"post-growth\" movements question even the idea of growth, although the definitions and focus of these arguments are open to question and their conclusions are controversial.\n\n== \"Just sustainability\" ==\n\n\"Just sustainability\" offers a socially just conception of [[sustainability]].\nJust sustainability effectively addresses what has been called the 'equity deficit' of ''environmental'' sustainability (Agyeman, 2005:44).<ref>Agyeman, J., ''Sustainable Communities and the Challenge of Environmental Justice'', (New York, USA: New York University Press, 2005), 44.</ref> It is \"the [[egalitarian]] conception of [[sustainable development]]\" (Jacobs, 1999:32).<ref>Jacobs, M., Sustainable Development as a Contested Concept, in A. Dobson, ''Fairness and Futurity: Essays on Environmental Sustainability and Social Justice'' (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1999), 32.</ref> It generates a more nuanced definition of sustainable development: \"the need to ensure a better [[quality of life]] for all, now and into the future, in a [[Justice|just]] and equitable manner, whilst living within the limits of supporting [[ecosystem]]s\" (Agyeman, et al., 2003:5).<ref>Agyeman, J., Bullard, R. D., and Evans, B. eds., ''Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World'' (Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press, 2003), 5.</ref> This conception of sustainable development focuses equally on four conditions: improving our quality of life and well-being; on meeting the needs of both present and future generations (''intra''- and ''inter''generational equity); on justice and equity in terms of recognition (Schlosberg, 1999),<ref>Schlosberg, D.,'' Environmental Justice and the New Pluralism: The Challenge of Difference for Environmentalism'', (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1999)</ref> process, procedure and outcome and on the need for us to live within ecosystem limits (also called ''one planet living'') (Agyeman, 2005:92).<ref>Agyeman, J.,'' Sustainable Communities and the Challenge of Environmental Justice'', (New York, USA: New York University Press, 2005), 92.</ref>\n\n== Unsustainability ==\n\n* 20% of the world's population using 80% of the resources\n* 5% annual world population growth.\n\n=== Financial unsustainability ===\n\n* The United States $65 billion monthly trade gap{{Verification needed}}\n* Chemical fertilizers growing 80 bushels of wheat on an acre of ever more depleting land\n* Borrowing US$100,000 at 6% interest to buy a tractor to farm 10,000 acres to net US$10,000 a year.\n\n== Notes ==\n\n<references />\n\n== See also ==\n\n* [[Green living]]\n* [[Thrivability]]\n* [[Ecovillages]]\n* [[Eco-municipality]]\n* [[Climate refugees]]\n\n== External links ==\n\n* [[Wikipedia:Sustainable development]]\n* [[Wikipedia:Portal:Sustainable development]]\n* [https://www.survivalrenewableenergy.com/10-eco-friendly-brands-go-green/ Eco-friendly Brands That Will Inspire You To Go Green]\n\n{{Page data\n| license = CC-BY-SA-3.0\n| description = Sustainable development means meeting today’s needs fairly. Appropedia explains how it connects people, planet, and long-term thinking.\n}}\n\n[[Category:Sustainable development]]\n[[Category:Principles of development]]\n[[Category:Sustainability]]"}