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What is sustainability and why?
The UN say that sustainability means development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
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What does that mean? Well, most simply, sustainable development means building things so that they can keep going in the future. So for example you don't use up wood quicker than trees can grow or you don't make more pollution than the environment can cope with.
Sustainable development
as a phrase became popular after a UN report in 1987 called Our Common Future. People in general were starting to get more eco-friendly at the time. People were noticing some of the damage that had been done in the past, and predicting problems like global warming. The report stressed that development needed to be realistic and respect the environment - people needed to think long term about what the environment could cope with. So mostly when people talk about sustainable development they talk about respecting nature.
But it's not just about being green. Sustainability is a new way of thinking about planning. The idea is that instead of just looking at one thing you try to find a balance between the environment, the economy and people's quality of life.
In the past development was sometimes just about making the most money, with no-one thinking about the effects on people or on the environment. This led to destruction of woodlands, polluted rivers, and also sometimes to cities that weren't pleasant to live in. This wasn't sustainable long term because once you've used up natural resources or destroyed the ecosystem, they've gone and you can't continue.
But putting the environment first instead wouldn't really work either. For example we could stop harming the environment if we all stopped using cars and electricity and lived naked in caves. But most people would think that their quality of life suffered too much if we did this. No one would go along with it so it's just not a realistic plan.
The UN report (Our Common Future) wasn't just about the environment. It was trying to find ways of looking after the environment and giving people in developing countries a decent quality of life at the same time. For example, there are still 1 billion people in the world without access to clean water. We have to find ways of solving problems like that without destroying the planet!
Obviously, in Birmingham most of us have plenty of clean water (or do we? See the Environment Agency's SaveWater campaign) so it's easy to think it's not our problem. But we might be doing things which affect other people. For example, when we buy fruit from abroad it has sometimes been watered with water which local people need. Do you think this is a problem for governments to deal with or is it the company's responsibility or is it your responsibility to not buy the fruit? What could governments do? We can say that businesses should be more responsible but what happens if they don't want to be? How much is the responsibility of the individual person? Do you think you do enough? Do you think other people are doing enough?
Sophia Collins
