Sustainability
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This much-quoted definition from the Brundtland Report of the World Council on Economic Development (WCED, 1987) captures what most people would agree is the principle of sustainability. This chapter examines the meaning of sustainability in a materials context. The view you take of it depends on scale – local or global – and on the time frame – weeks, years, centuries. The chapter starts by examining approaches, starting from the short-term Pollution Control and Prevention, through Design for the Environment, ideas of Industrial Ecology, finally broadening to Sustainable Development. It then examines the parallel, coupled flows of energy, biomass and materials from source to sink, focusing ultimately on material sustainability. This involves an survey of sustainable and quasi-sustainable materials, bio-derived polymers and bio-composites.