What is sustainability?

What is sustainability?

There are endless numbers of definitions of sustainability in use and even more discussions ongoing which definition is explaining the concept of sustainability in the best way. There are articles, books, PhD theses, web pages etc. which will give you all details about those definitons.
Therefore, let me just put here the most common (and most quoted) one which is from the Brundtland Report ("Our common future"):

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

So we have two important concepts within this definition:

• intergenerational justice: taking into account the future generations and their needs
• intragenerational justice: establishing a balance between poor and rich countries (the richt "north" and the poor "south")

Hence, all of our actions have to take intergenerational and intragenerational justice into account, i.e. we have to consider how our decissions are impacting the future needs of future generations and the present needs of all people nowerdays.