What is Sustainability?
There is no specific definition of sustainability. Over time, researchers have come with different definitions of sustainability. It is also seen that the definition of sustainability varies based on the context. Most of the researchers have mentioned three types of sustainability:
- Environmental
- Economic
- Social
As per many publications, economy is a part of society and society is part of environment (biosphere). So, environmental sustainability is considered the most important. Therefore, in daily use term sustainability is used in the environment context.
Sustainable Development
Sustainability is a goal, an ideal and sustainable development is the process to achieve that. United Nations Commission on Environment and Development defines it as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The UN Report Our Common Future made sustainability mainstream and made sustainable development popular.
Environemtal Sustainability
Environment sustainability refers to protecting our natural ecosystems so that future generations can enjoy them same as we do. This includes natural resources such as air, water, land, flora, and fauna. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution are the top environmental problems of the 21st century.
Economic Sustainability
Economic sustainability means using money or resources in a way that we can keep going for a long time. Environment and economy are said to be interdependent i.e. an increase in poverty can increase environmental problems and an increase environmental problems can cause an increase in poverty. Economic sustainability also focuses on providing basic needs to poor i.e. food, water, shelter, and health.
Social Sustainability
Social sustainability focuses creating communities where people are happy and healthy, and they feel safe, included, and valued. This focus on aspects such as women empowerment, equity between rich and poor, equity between old and young, inclusion of people with disability, etc.
Challenges
- Trade-offs: Meeting today's needs will impact the availability of resources in future. Some people believe that it is almost impossible to balance the three types of sustainability and we will have to compromise one or the other. Many people agree that sustainability is necessary and we have to aim for it.
- No specific definition: The definition of sustainability has varied over time and context and therefore the definition is very lose. Although, this does not reduce the relevance of concept of sustainability.
- Greenwashing and Greenscamming: Greenwashing is a kind of marketing where organizations provide misleading information on sustainability of product, policies, or activities. Greenscamming is when organizations use misleading product names to falsely imply that their products are environment friendly where they are actually not.