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• 1.0 Introduction
• 2.0 earthmodal sustainability
• 3.0 The Five layers
  • 3.1 Worldviews
  • 3.2 Transformation
  • 3.3 Governance
  • 3.4 Mandates
  • 3.5 Dialogue
• 4.0 The Three Pillars
  • 4.1 Environment
  • 4.2 Economics
  • 4.3 Human Development
• 5.0 Ecosystems
• 6.0 Sustainability Devices
• 7.0 Citizen and Manager Proxy

 

1.0 Introduction

Sustainability was first called sustainable development. The subject was initially recognized at the United Nations after Gro Harlem Brundtland launched the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, in 1983.

At the time the notion of sustainability was conceived as a marriage of economy and ecology so that governments and their people could take responsibility not just for environmental damage, but for the policies that caused the damage. Since then the term has been expanded to include the idea of three pillar sustainability. In the chairman's foreword Brundtland said:

"'A global agenda for change' this was what the world commission on environment and development was asked to formulate. It was an urgent call by the Gen. assembly of the United Nations to propose long-term environmental strategies for achieving sustainable development by the year 2000 and beyond

• to recommend ways concern for the environment may be translated into greater cooperation among developing countries and between countries at different stages of economic and social development and lead to the achievement of common and mutually supportive objectives that take account of the interrelationships between people resources environment and the development;
• to consider ways and means by which the international community can deal more effectively with the environmental concerns and
• to help define the shared perceptions of long-term environmental issues and the appropriate efforts needed to deal successfully with the problems of protecting and enhancing the environment of long-term agenda for action during the coming decades and aspirational goals for the world community.

See also Wikipedia - Sustainability

"Sustainability, in general terms, is the ability to maintain balance of a certain process or state in any system. It is now most frequently used in connection with biological and human systems. In an ecological context, sustainability can be defined as the ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes, functions, biodiversity and productivity into the future.

Sustainability has become a complex term that can be applied to almost every system on Earth, particularly the many different levels of biological organization, such as; wetlands, prairies and forests and is expressed in human organization concepts, such as; eco-municipalities, sustainable cities, and human activities and disciplines, such as; sustainable agriculture, sustainable architecture and renewable energy."