sustainability sustainability sustainability is a social goal about the ability of people to co-exist on earth over a long time. specific definitions of this term are difficult to agree on. they have varied with literature, context, and time. experts often describe sustainability as having three dimensions (or pillars). these are environmental, economic, and social. many publications state that the environmental dimension is the most important. so in everyday use, sustainability often focuses on countering major environmental problems. these include climate change and loss of biodiversity. they also include loss of ecosystem services, land degradation, and air and water pollution. the idea of sustainability can guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable living). a related concept is sustainable development, and the terms are often used to mean the same thing. unesco distinguishes the two like this: "sustainability is often thought of as a long-term goal (i.e. a more sustainable world), while sustainable development refers to the many processes and pathways to achieve it." several visual representations of sustainability and its three dimensions: the left image shows sustainability as three intersecting circles. in the top right it is a nested approach. in the bottom right it is three pillars. the schematic with the nested ellipses emphasizes a hierarchy of the dimensions, putting environment as the foundation for the other two. the economic dimension of sustainability involves a tension between what scholars refer to as "weak and strong sustainability". for example, there will always be tension between the ideas of "welfare and prosperity for all" and environmental conservation. so trade-offs are necessary. approaches that decouple economic growth from environmental deterioration would be desirable. but they are difficult to carry out. measuring sustainability is difficult. indicators consider environmental, social and economic domains. the metrics are evolving. they include certification systems, types of corporate accounting, and types of index. it is necessary to address many barriers to sustainability to make a sustainability transition possible.: 34 some barriers arise from nature and its complexity. other barriers are extrinsic to the concept of sustainability. for example they can result from the dominant institutional frameworks in countries. there are many approaches people can take to transition to environmental sustainability. these include maintaining ecosystem services, reducing food waste, and promoting dietary shifts towards plant-based foods. another is reducing population growth by cutting fertility rates. others are promoting new green technologies, and adopting renewable energy sources while phasing out subsidies to fossil fuels. the united nations agreed the sustainable development goals (sdgs) in 2015. these set a global agenda for sustainable development, with a deadline of 2030. one option to overcome barriers to sustainable development is to decouple economic growth from environmental conservation. this means using fewer resources per unit of output even while growing the economy. this reduces the environmental impact of economic growth such as pollution. doing this is difficult. some experts say there is no evidence that it is happening at the required scale. global issues are difficult to tackle as they need global solutions. existing global organizations such as the un and wto are inefficient in enforcing current global regulations. one reason for this is the lack of suitable sanctioning mechanisms.: 135–145 governments are not the only sources of action for sustainability. business groups have tried to integrate ecological concerns with economic activity. religious leaders have stressed the need for caring for nature and environmental stability. individuals can also live in a more sustainable way. the concept of sustainability has faced various criticisms. one is that the concept is vague and only a buzzword. another is that sustainability might be an impossible goal. some experts have pointed out that "no country is delivering what its citizens need without transgressing the biophysical planetary boundaries".: 11 definitions current usage sustainability commonly refers to the preservation of natural resources and ecosystems to preserve human life on earth. it is regarded as a "normative concept". this means it is based on what people value or find desirable: "the quest for sustainability involves connecting what is known through scientific study to applications in pursuit of what people want for the future." the 1983 un commission on environment and development (brundtland commission) had a big influence on how we use the term sustainability today. the commission's 1987 brundtland report provided a definition of sustainable development. the report, our common future, defines it as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". the report helped bring sustainability into the mainstream of policy discussions. it also popularized the concept of sustainable development. some other key concepts to illustrate the meaning of sustainability include: it may be a fuzzy concept but in a positive sense: the goals are more important than the approaches or means applied; it connects with other essential concepts such as resilience, adaptive capacity, and vulnerability. choices matter: "it is not possible to sustain everything, everywhere, forever"; scale matters in both space and time, and place matters; limits exist (see planetary boundaries). in everyday usage, sustainability often focuses on the environmental aspects. specific definitions some scholars say that a single specific definition of sustainability may never be possible. but the concept is still useful. there have been attempts to define it, for example: "sustainability can be defined as the capacity to maintain or improve the state and availability of desirable materials or conditions over the long term." "sustainability the long-term viability of a community, set of social institutions, or societal practice. in general, sustainability is understood as a form of intergenerational ethics in which the environmental and economic actions taken by present persons do not diminish the opportunities of future persons to enjoy similar levels of wealth, utility, or welfare." "sustainability means meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. in addition to natural resources, we also need social and economic resources. sustainability is not just environmentalism. embedded in most definitions of sustainability we also find concerns for social equity and economic development." some definitions focus on the environmental dimension. the oxford dictionary of english defines sustainability as: "the property of being environmentally sustainable; the degree to which a process or enterprise is able to be maintained or continued while avoiding the long-term depletion of natural resources". historical usage the term sustainability is derived from the latin word sustinere. "to sustain" can mean to maintain, support, uphold, or endure. so sustainability is the ability to continue over a long period of time. in the past, sustainability referred to environmental sustainability. it meant using natural resources so that people in the future could continue to rely on them in the long term. the concept of sustainability, or nachhaltigkeit in german, goes back to hans carl von carlowitz (1645–1714), and applied to forestry. we would now call this sustainable forest management. he used this term to mean the long-term responsible use of a natural resource. in his 1713 work silvicultura oeconomica, he wrote that "the highest art/science/industriousness will consist in such a conservation and replanting of timber that there can be a continuous, ongoing and sustainable use". the transfer of this concept from forestry to natural resources and development of the economy traces back to a book by ernst basler that was published in german in 1972. it explained how the long-acknowledged concept of preserving forests for future wood production can be directly transferred to the broader importance of preserving environmental resources to sustain the world for future generations. in economic terms, the book and an accompanying article promulgated the concept of living off the “interest” rather than the “principal” which is the “capital stock” of natural resources on “spaceship earth.” this concept of sustainable development was promoted 15 years later by the un commission on environment and development. the idea itself goes back a very long time: communities have always worried about the capacity of their environment to sustain them in the long term. many ancient cultures, traditional societies, and indigenous peoples have restricted the use of natural resources. comparison to sustainable development the terms sustainability and sustainable development are closely related. in fact, they are often used to mean the same thing. both terms are linked with the "three dimensions of sustainability" concept. one distinction is that sustainability is a general concept, while sustainable development can be a policy or organizing principle. scholars say sustainability is a broader concept because sustainable development focuses mainly on human well-being. sustainable development has two linked goals. it aims to meet human development goals. it also aims to enable natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services needed for economies and society. the concept of sustainable development has come to focus on economic development, social development and environmental protection for future generations. dimensions development of three dimensions sustainability venn diagram, where sustainability is thought of as the area where the three dimensions overlap scholars usually distinguish three different areas of sustainability. these are the environmental, the social, and the economic. several terms are in use for this concept. authors may speak of three pillars, dimensions, components, aspects, perspectives, factors, or goals. all mean the same thing in this context. the three dimensions paradigm has few theoretical foundations. it emerged without a single point of origin. scholars rarely question the distinction itself. the idea of sustainability with three dimensions is a dominant interpretation in the literature. in the brundtland report the environment and development are inseparable go together in the search for sustainability. it described sustainable development as a global concept linking environmental and social issues. it added sustainable development is important for both developing countries and industrialized countries: the 'environment' is where we all live; and 'development' is what we all do in attempting to improve our lot within that abode. the two are inseparable. we came to see that a new development path was required, one that sustained human progress not just in a few pieces for a few years, but for the entire planet into the distant future. thus 'sustainable development' becomes a goal not just for the 'developing' nations, but for industrial ones as well.— our common future (also known as the brundtland report), : foreword and section i.1.10 the rio declaration from 1992 is seen as "the foundational instrument in the move towards sustainability".: 29 it includes specific references to ecosystem integrity.: 31 the plan associated with carrying out the rio declaration also discusses sustainability in this way. the plan, agenda 21, talks about economic, social, and environmental dimensions:: 8.6 countries could develop systems for monitoring and evaluation of progress towards achieving sustainable development by adopting indicators that measure changes across economic, social and environmental dimensions.— united nations conference on environment & development – earth summit (1992), : 8.6 agenda 2030 from 2015 also viewed sustainability in this way. it sees the 17 sustainable development goals (sdgs) with their 169 targets as balancing "the three dimensions of sustainable development, the economic, social and environmental". hierarchy the diagram with three nested ellipses indicates a hierarchy between the three dimensions of sustainability: both economy and society are constrained by environmental limits the wedding cake model for the sustainable development goals is similar to the nested ellipses diagram, where the environmental dimension or system is the basis for the other two dimensions. scholars have discussed how to rank the three dimensions of sustainability. many publications state that the environmental dimension is the most important. (planetary integrity or ecological integrity are other terms for the environmental dimension.) protecting ecological integrity is the core of sustainability according to many experts. if this is the case then its environmental dimension sets limits to economic and social development. the diagram with three nested ellipses is one way of showing the three dimensions of sustainability together with a hierarchy: it gives the environmental dimension a special status. in this diagram, the environment includes society, and society includes economic conditions. thus it stresses a hierarchy. another model shows the three dimensions in a similar way: in this sdg wedding cake model, the economy is a smaller subset of the societal system. and the societal system in turn is a smaller subset of the biosphere system. in 2022 an assessment examined the political impacts of the sustainable development goals. the assessment found that the