Sustainability
meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations, maintaining and enhancing the health and viability of socio-ecological systems over the long term. It involves practices that do not deplete resources or harm ecological and social systems.
Brundtland Report
1987 UN report where the prime minister of Norway proposes the term sustainable development
Environmental sustainability
Managing natural resources to prevent degradation and depletion, ensuring that the natural environment can continue to support life and provide resources for the future.
Societal sustainability
Focuses on maintaining and improving social equity, quality of life, and justice. Aims to create inclusive, equitable and healthy communities — contributing to the overall human well-being
Economic sustainability
Ensure economic growth that does not degrade social and environmental health but supports long-term human wellbeing and ecological balance.
Sustainability models
Promotes decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources.
Relies on three principles:
Eliminating waste and pollution
Circulating products and materials
Regenerating nature.
Environmental justice
Right of all people to live in a pollution-free environment, and to have equitable access to natural resources, regardless of issues such as race, gender, socioeconomic status, and nationality
Indicator
Measures specific characteristics of a substance, people or an ecosystem.
Sustainability indicator
Quantitative measures of biodiversity, pollution, human population, climate change, material and carbon footprints, and others. These indicators can be applied on a range of scales, from local to global.
Composite indicator
A measure of multiple characteristics of a people or ecosystem; often, though not always, presented as an index number.
Human Development Index
A composite indicator that measures health, education, and standard of living of a population and is expressed as an index number; the higher the number, the higher the human development.
Ecological footprint
The area of land and water required to sustainably provide all resources at the rate at which they are being consumed and absorb all the waste from that population.
Biocapacity
The capacity of a given biologically productive area to generate an ongoing supply of renewable resources and to absorb its resulting wastes.
Earth Overshoot Day
Marks the point in each year when we exceed Earth's support capacity.
Carbon footprint
Measures the greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide emitted from our economic activities and is measured in tonnes.
Water footprint
A measure of the total amount of water used to produce the goods and services consumed by an individual, community, or country.
Citizen Science
Non-scientists helping researchers collect environmental data.
Sustainable Development Goals
17 interconnected goals that provide a framework for sustainable development to address the global challenges faced by humanity, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, peace and justice.
A set of objectives created by the United Nations in 2015 to address the global social, environmental, and economic challenges faced by humanity.
Planetary Boundaries
Identifies the limits of human disturbance to those systems.
Climate Change
Ocean Acidification
Stratospheric Ozone Depletion
Nitrogen and Phosphorus Cycles
Freshwater Use
Land System Change
Biosphere
Atmospheric Aerosol Loading
Novel Entities (e.g. chemical pollution)
Planetary boundaries model
A model that attempts to quantify the limits of nine Earth systems, to determine the ‘safe operating space’ of human economic activity.
Gross Domestic Product
The change in the total market value of goods and services in a country over a period
Green GDP
An alternative measure that provides insights into the environmental and social aspects of economic sustainability by subtracting environmental costs from the traditional GDP calculations.
Doughnut economic model
This model defines an economy that is ecologically safe and socially just.
Regenerative
Works with and within the cycles and limits of the living world.
Distributive
Shares value and opportunity far more equitably among all stakeholders.
Redistribute wealth to support the social foundation for low-income individuals to prosper within ecological boundaries.
Businesses should equitably distribute value among stakeholders.
Circular economy model
Model that promotes decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources. It has three principles: eliminating waste and pollution, circulating products and materials, and regenerating nature.