Components of Sustainability

Sustainability is generally accepted as having three critical components: economic, environmental, and societal. The central question that is posed by sustainability is: how to bring a higher quality of life (economic) to the masses of humanity (societal) without destroying the natural foundations upon which life on Earth is built (environmental). This particular question in turn becomes the central goal of the greening of business by adding one crucial word (shown following in italics). How can we profitably bring the benefits of a better quality of life to all humanity without destroying the natural world? This single question, perhaps more than any other, may be the most important that humanity has ever grappled with. And it is one that this current generation of humans, for better or worse, has the profound responsibility of answering—for we are today at a climactic point in history when inaction and the continuation of the status quo will surely provide an answer if humanity does not.

Sustainability is often referred to as “sustainable development” to emphasize the crucial component of ensuring that the benefits of modern society accrue also to the developing world. “Sustainable progress” is perhaps a clearer definition of the task. Can we continue to spread the progress that perhaps 20 percent of humanity has enjoyed in the last 50 years—in health care, education, communication, transportation, food, shelter and basic comforts—to the remaining 80 percent of humanity, but do so in ways that, ultimately, do not do irreparable harm to the natural world? As China and India and other developing countries accelerate their efforts to pull their people out of deep poverty, the answer to that question will be answered—for better or worse—in the next few decades.