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What is Sustainability?

Global Agreements to Sustainability

Sustainability

Sustainability is the goal of sustainable development, a journey and destination that is to be culturally negotiated. There is much ambiguity and debate over the terms and the way to proceed, though it is fairly evident that a reform of current practice is required and new ways of thinking and acting.

The key goals of sustainability are to live within our environmental limits, to achieve social justice and to foster economic and social progress while developing a quality of life for all.

Around the globe governments, industry, communities and citizens have rallied to make commitments and support actions for sustainability (see Global Commitments to Sustainability)

Underpinning these are discussions on what 'sustainability', 'sustainable development' or related terms really mean and whether they are indeed different. Some people, particularly from economically developed nations prefer to use the term 'sustainability' rather than 'sustainable development' others opt for 'sustainable futures' or 'sustainable living'. Interestingly the focus of many of these terms is 'quality of life' and the process of achieving sustainability is widely understood as one of defining and seeking a better quality of life.

United Nations documents refer to intergenerational equity, ecological sustainability and fair distribution of wealth, community participation and access to resources as key sustainability concepts associated with quality of life issues. Underpinning them is a strong premise that both society and economy are dependent on a healthy environment to provide ecosystem services.

The notion of what a sustainable world looks like remains a contested one and the process of how to achieve sustainability remains to be negotiated. However, three key ideas underpin notions of sustainability:

No country is sustainable or has come close to becoming sustainable. There is no proven recipe for success. This has led to the realization that sustainability is essentially an ongoing learning by doing process that actively involves stakeholders, in creating their vision, acting and reviewing changes. This has had the effect of broadening the scope of Environmental Education, beyond the limits of the school walls and away from an orientation to learning key content. It has created a support for education techniques such as facilitation, mentoring and action learning which enable people to reflect and learn from their experiences.
Need to challenge mental models rather than merely inform society. Many of our current practices are unsustainable, suggesting that to achieve sustainability, we need to challenge the way we think. This involves questioning and reflecting upon current decisions and ways of acting. This suggests redefining Environmental Education from assisting people to understand how society, environment and economic systems are linked to include critical thinking and reflection about the way we think and act.
Need to tackle the underlying problems rather than addressing symptoms. It has been suggested that environmentalism in the past has mostly been a movement against certain things (for example stopping pollution and other harmful activities and complying with environmental regulations), whereas the 'new' environmental stance is more forward thinking. It aims to do things differently in the first place to avoid environmental and socio economic problems, rather than being reactive and acting on the symptoms instead of the underlying problems. This perspective supports the type of Environmental Education practice which develops skills to tackle the root causes of environmental problems and to focus on creating a better future.

The Emergence of Sustainability as a Concept

Notions of sustainability began to emerge on the international agenda as early as 1972, and in 1980 the 'World Conservation Strategy' (IUCN, UNEP and WWF) initiated global discussion on sustainable development. "Our Common Future" also called the 'Brundtland Report', was presented to the UN General Assembly 1987 after three years of submissions from around the world by the World Commission on Environment and Development. The definition of sustainable development in this text is the most often cited. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, in 1992, also called the "Earth Summit" accelerated global discussion, albeit with an environmental focus. 'Agenda 21' was among the key documents by which countries agreed to actions promoting sustainability through a variety of measures, including education. Rio also led to the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention to Combat Desertification. With the influence of the Millennium Development Goals (2000), the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), held in Johannesburg, while highlighting how current actions are leading to environmental degradation, had a strong emphasis on the socio-economic aspects such as poverty, inequity, poor quality of life and associated human suffering. The WSSD 'Johannesburg Implementation Plan' United Nations (2002) reinforced the importance of global governance and partnerships and laid out actions spanning ten years for sustainability.

The text of this section has been adapted from Tilbury, D. and Cooke, K. (2005) A National Review of Environmental Education and its Contribution to Sustainability in Australia: Frameworks for Sustainability. Canberra: Australian Government Department of the Environment and Water Resources and Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability. If you wish to cite or refer to this text in another document please acknowledge the original source. Download the document here

Identifying Sustainabilty as an Issue

'Most people in the world today have an immediate and intuitive sense of the urgent need to build a sustainable future. They may not be able to provide a precise definition of 'sustainable development' or 'sustainability' - indeed, even experts debate that issue - but they clearly sense the danger and the need for informed action.

They smell the problem in the air; they taste it in their water; they see it in more congested living spaces and blemished landscapes; they read about it in the newspapers and hear about it on radio and television.'

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (1997, p.3) Environment and Society: Education and Public Awareness for Sustainability. Background Paper prepared for the International Conference, Thessaloniki

Quality of Life

Quality of life features as an integral part of sustainability both in Australia and internationally. In Australia ecologically sustainable development has been defined as:

'using, conserving and enhancing the community's resources so that ecological processes, on which life depends, are maintained, and the total quality of life, now and in the future, can be increased.'

Commonwealth of Australia (1990, p.6) Ecologically Sustainable Development: A Commonwealth Discussion Paper. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

Internationally, sustainable development has been defined as:

'improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting eco-systems.'

IUCN/UNEP/WWF (1991, p.6) Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN/UNEP/WFF.

'Sustainable development, sustainable community, sustainable industry, sustainable agriculture. You may have heard these words used in many different ways, but what does "sustainability" really mean and how can you tell if your community is sustainable? Sustainability is related to the quality of life in a community -- whether the economic, social and environmental systems that make up the community are providing a healthy, productive, meaningful life for all community residents, present and future.'

Sustainable Measures (2005) What is Sustainability, anyway?

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