Defining Sustainability

Wind turbines stand tall in a lush green field, harnessing the power of nature for sustainable development as the sun sets on the horizon.

Sustainability is a huge peice of the mission here at Imperfectly Sustainable, as our name suggets. But what is it? With the term becoming a buzzword in the online space recently, it's only right to address both the given and interpreted definitons of the term.

The Literal Definition

We'll start with the genral definition of sustainability in everyday language to give some context to its use within the environmental sector. Oxford Languages defines sustainable as “able to be maintained at a certain rate or level.” 

So what does that mean? An example you might hear in the news is something like “sustainable economic growth.” In this case, it refers to a rate of growth that can be maintained for a long period of time, as opposed to periods of drastic growth and economic crashes. 

The word sustainable is also often thrown around in diet and fitness culture. You want to make sure your workout plan is sustainable for you and you can maintain, or sustain, it for a long period of time. In this context, sustainability would look different for everybody. Going to the gym 4x a week might be sustainable for me, but if you have children for example, that might not be sustainable for you. 

Definition as it Applies to Environmental Contexts

It is important to bear in mind the general definition of sustainability in plain language as we move on to discuss its meaning in environmental-related contexts as the themes definitelt translate.

There is a very well-known and widely used definition of sustainability within the environmental space that comes from the 1987 United Nations Brundtland Commission which put out what's commonly referred to as the Brundtland report. In this report sustainability, specifically sustainable development, is defined as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” 

This definition is a little more complicated, so let's break it down. Starting with the first part, "...meeting the needs of the present...". By this we mean the basics, water, food, shelter, but also resources and way of life. There are plenty of places and people that struggle to meet these needs today due to a variety of circumstances, which should be acknowledged, and is a critique of this definition as it is very human-centered and not all needs of survival are currently met.

The next part of the definition, "...without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs," implies there is a limit of what the environment can provide for us, how much of it we can use, and that resources are not all infinite. The second half of the definition means that we need to live in a way that does not deplete these resources to the extent that future generations do not have t

hem any longer. Resources could refer to a variety of things in this context. A simple example to consider is to think about how much of the human population already does not have access to clean drinking water. Imagine if we keep dumping toxic waste into our bodies of water, and oil spills keep adding up, and the garbage patch in the ocean keeps growing, how many more people will struggle? Something has to give. 

Where Does Poverty Fit In?

The report goes on to address how existing poverty fits within this picture, especially within Part 1 of Our Common Future titled From One Earth to One World:

"The Commission believes that widespread poverty is no longer inevitable. Poverty is not only an evil in itself, but sustainable development requires meeting the basic needs of all and extending to all the opportunity to fulfil their aspirations for a better life. A world in which poverty is endemic will always be prone to ecological and other catastrophes,"

"Meeting essential needs requires not only a new era of economic growth for nations in which the majority are poor, but an assurance that those poor get their fair share of the resources required to sustain that growth. Such equity would be aided by political systems that secure effective citizen participation in decision making and by greater democracy in international decision making,"

"Sustainable global development requires that those who are more affluent adopt life-styles within the planet's ecological means - in their use of energy, for example. Further, rapidly growing populations can increase the pressure on resources and slow any rise in living standards; thus sustainable development can only be pursued if population size and growth are in harmony with the changing productive potential of the ecosystem," 

"Yet in the end, sustainable development is not a fixed state of harmony, but rather a process of change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development, and institutional change are made consistent with future as well as present needs. We do not pretend that the process is easy or straightforward. Painful choices have to be made. Thus, in the final analysis, sustainable development must rest on political will,"

In Summary

When referring to sustainability, we are talking about achieving that balance between the human lifestyle, and what the planet can support and creating harmony between the two. 

You’ll often hear the buzz word “sustainable alternatives”, meaning acting in a way that is more in line with this pursuit of harmony. The alternative puts less pressure on our biosphere than the current methods. Thrifting clothing versus buying new, for example. With anything, there is a lot of nuance with the argument of thrifting, but stripping it down, buying previously loved items puts less stress on the environment than manufacturing new products does. Greenwashing is something to be mindful of as a consumer, especially when brands are advertising somethign to be "green" or "eco-friendly", though that is a separate topic of discussion.