What is

Sustainability?

SUST0001
CARLOS MONTEVERDE SALVATIERRA
SID 440565536

Abstract

The conceptualization of the term Sustainability has been, at best, puzzling. As a field of research, Sustainability has
been largely confined to a mix of differing disciplines seldom working with an interdisciplinary approach. It is
imperative to commit different perspectives from different disciplines in establishing an interconnected designation
for Sustainability. The failure to bring a complete explanation of what is sustainability has led to a wide spectrum of
definitions, in this seemingly constantly changing subject; with simply no unanimously agreed concept. For a
discipline which appears to be so decisive in decades to come, the lack of a proper definitions is without doubt a
significant obstacle in the advancement and development of it as research scientific discipline.
KEYWORDS: Sustainability, Sustainable Development

Introduction
Ground-breaking book Silent Spring by
Rachel Carson (2002/1962) introduced the
world to the human repercussion in the
environment. In 1972, the book named Limits
to Growth examined the exponential
economic and population growth against
limited resource supplies; taking world
population, industrialization, pollution, food
production and resource depletion as
variables (Meadows et al, 1972). Both
materials were precursors to the discovery to
what today we know as Sustainability.
By 1987, it was the first time the concept of
Sustainability and Sustainable Development
was presented by the World Commission of
Environment and Development (also known
as Brundlandt Commission). This traditional
definition determined that sustainability was
to meet the needs of the present without
undermining the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs (WCED, 1987, pp
5).

However, the original Brundlandt definition

has been viewed as a flawed conception, as it
is not measurable nor precise (Strong, 2001).
Since then, no universally agreed concept has
been established of what sustainability is.
Further developments in Sustainability were
developed in the Rio Earth Summit with the
Agenda 21 guidelines (UN, 1993). In 2002,
in the World Summit for Sustainable
Development additional parameters were
established, reinforcing the three pillars of
sustainability: economy, society and
environment. (UN, 2003) Finally, in the
RIO+20 Summit in 2012 the green economy
concept was introduced. (UN, 2012)
As a result, the tendency to see sustainability
as an ever-evolving theory has contributed
for the vagueness in its conceptualization.
Subsequently, several different definitions of
sustainability and sustainable development
arise.

Eventually, this evolution in the concept of

sustainability has led many theorists to render
it as a meaningless (Fry, 2011) In light of
findings, this essay supports the view that
significant vagueness exists in the traditional
concept and will propose a new definition of
what sustainability by analysing how its
three main components (environmental,
economic and social) commonly called the
triple bottom line (Elkington, 1999), how
these are generally measured and their
interrelation within a system.
What is sustainability?
At the outset, it is essential to understand the
difference of sustainable development as the
process and sustainability as the goal.
Furthermore, it is relevant to comprehend
that sustainability is to be achieved in a
dynamic system (global, regional or local)
that has multiple interconnections and where
human stresses play a key role in it. (Scoones,
2007)
One concept of sustainability is given by
Gallopin (2003): sustainability of any
system can be represented by a nondecreasing valuation function of the outputs
of interest of the system considered.
Gallopin presents another basic premise of
how the procurement of sustainability takes
place within a system.
Gallopins definition conveys the output as
the approach of measuring sustainability in a
given system. In practice, the output of the
system is to be measured in several indicators
such as human security, economic growth,
well-bring and health, waste management,
water consumption, income equality, among
others.

A more comprehensive definition is that

sustainability is ensuring our planets
capacity to provide a continued flow of goods
and services for a period that is dependable
with the systems time and space scale.
(McMichael, 2003).
While both definition explains further what
sustainability is, it has not included the
needed equilibrium between the social,
economic and environmental factors within
sustainability.
Figure 1 shows the model of the triple bottom
line on how sustainability is achieved by the
equilibrium of the environmental, economic
and social elements.

Figure 1. The three elements of sustainability. Adams, 2006

Triple bottom line: Environmental

factor
The first element within Sustainability is the
environmental
factor.
Environmental
sustainability is the ability of the natural
environment of maintaining the liveability
for species and the extraction of renewable
and non-renewable resources for a period
consistent with the systems time and space
scale. (Sutton, 2004)

Alternatively, environmental sustainability

can be defined for: renewable resources (the
rate of harvest should not exceed he rate of
regeneration) for pollution (the rates for
waste production should not exceed the
assimilative capacity of the environment and
for non-renewable resources the depletion of
non-renewable resources should require a
comparable development of renewable
substitutes for that resource. (Daly, 1990)
According to the government of Australia,
the sustainability in the environment can be
measured in the following terms: air quality,
greenhouse emissions, energy intensity, and
water consumption, recycling rate and
ecosystem protection (Department of
Environment, 2013).
Traditionally,
the
general
scientific
community has agreed the capability of the
environmental resources to provide products
for human consumption, to absorb or
sequestrate human waste and to yield
ecosystem services are all limited. (Adams,
2006).
Furthermore, the ecological field have agreed
that nonlinear dynamics are accepted as an
inherent element of the ecologic system.
Consequently, the Earths capacity of meets
our needs depends both on its internal
dynamics and the dynamics resulting from
interaction with the general population and
its integration with the social and economic
aspects (Adams, 2006). This limitation is
where Sustainability comes into place.

The Economical Factor

The environment is integrally linked to the
economic and social outcomes a political unit
achieves (Doane, 2001). The economic
growth and the capital creation of a nation,
city or community is dependent directly on
the environmental resources, and therefore
on environmental depletion.
Given those premises, we understand as
economic sustainability is the ability to
maintain a defined level of economic
development for a life span that is consistent
with the systems time and space scale. On a
macroeconomic level, many indicators have
been used to measure the economical
sustainability such as GDP growth (main
economic aim for a country), the GDP per
capita, and the poverty threshold, national
income, national savings, etc. (Pearce , 1993)
On a micro-level,
Chouinard (2011)
explains: it has evolved from being seeing
an operational concern consisting in
companies caring about the environmental
footprints and cutting on waste to cost
reduction and innovation and being
considered in whole value chains. Currently,
at this level, economical sustainability
permeates all the decision-making process of
firms.
The Social Factor
The third element of Sustainability is the
Social Sustainability which maybe be defined
as a life-enhancing ability to maintain the
social equity, resilience, human adaptation
and health equity for a life span that is
consistent with the systems time and space
scale.

It can be measured by the population access

to key services, a system of cultural relations
in which positive aspects of the culture are
protected, widespread political participation
of citizens, etc. (McKenzie, 2004)
The economy is related to the social
sustainability by factors of employment
opportunities for individuals and economic
viability of projects enhancing these
individuals quality of life.
Accordingly, how the concept of social
sustainability interrelates with the the
environmental factor is represented on how a
healthy environment is promoted and
achieved measured on how the population
relates to the natural world and the health
consequences of bad judged ecological
behaviours (McMichael, 2003).
Principles of Sustainability
Regardless of all the definitions for
Sustainability, some principles or guidelines
exist and are to be applied to all definitions.
These principles may hold the key for the
ultimate definition.
Firstly, sustainability is an anthropocentric
concept where decision-making process
should integrate both long and short term
economic, environmental, and social and
equity considerations. (ESDSC, 1992) Also,
sustainability involves intergenerational and
intergenerational equity (Weiss, 1990).
Lastly, Sustainability requires stakeholder
engagement and participatory inclusion.
(Fraser et al, 2005).

Can Sustainability be achieved?

These principles established a starting point
towards a definition. However, some
concerns still lie whenever discussing the
field of sustainability.
One of the heavily debated topics in the
Sustainability field discusses if effectively
environmental resources, economic growth
and consequently social well-being can be
sustained indefinitely or at least to an extent
consistent with the system in question.
The debate involves the exponential function
for population growth and if its feasible to
sustain an exponential rate of energy use,
water consumption or economic growth with
the limited environmental resources at hand.
As Harford (2014) stipulated in his book
about how sustainability seems to be still at
our reach: Fortunately, in the short term
technological progress was faster than
population growth. More recently population
growth has been slowing down dramatically.
Theres every reason to believe that the
population of the planet is going to stabilize.
I dont think anybody believes zero
population growth is unsustainable
Another problem with determining if
sustainability is actually attained, is that it
can only be made after the fact. Constanza
(1995) argues that: what passes as
definitions of sustainability are therefore
often predictions of actions taken today that
one hopes will lead to sustainability
For instance, keeping Co2 emissions below
the natural air renewal rates, one could argue,
will lead to a sustainable air quality and not

to global warming. However, this is only a

prediction to be known in the future.
Moreover,
in
order
to
determine
sustainability, it needs to be addressed in the
context of a particular system (industry,
business, culture, country, etc.) and defined
in a determined scale in terms of time and
space. In this context, Constanza (1995)
further explains: A sustainable system is
thus one that attains its full expected life span
within the nested hierarchy of systems within
which it is embedded
Conclusions
The conceptualization of Sustainability is
crucial for an enhanced understanding in the
process of moving our societies towards
sustainable development. (Glavic, 2007)
There are some views about Sustainability
which stand in time and are of great relevance
for todays world. Sustainability can be used
narrowly or broadly. However, in order for a
definition to useful it must specify explicitly
the context as well as the temporal and spatial
scales being considered. In the end, the
meaning of the term is heavily dependent on
the context in which is applied or whether its
use is based on an environmental, economic
or social perspective. (Brown, 1987)
The principles of sustainability are the
guidelines who position the direction of the
ultimate definition. We have heard numerous
terms like connectivity and resilience and this
paper has tried to address the main element of
the complex and dense concept of
Sustainability.
For this author, Sustainability is maximizing
the equilibrium between environmental,

social (including political and cultural) and

economic conditions to consolidate that
human security, well-being and health are to
be supported for a life span that is consistent
with the systems time and space scale. Thus,
Sustainability is more than the sum of its
parts, it is quality of life for all living
organisms now and into the future.

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