ABSTRACT
Institutions and sustainability are interwoven. Since the Brundtland Commission promoted the concept of sustainable development in 1987, it has been defined and redefined in numerous and often sharply conflicting ways (World Commission on Environment and Development 1990). All definitions, however, share notions of permanence, resilience and endurance over long time-scales. These are also the characteristics that connect sustainable development with institutions. Institutions, or the rules that define what are legitimate actions for organizations and individuals to take in society, often prove to be lasting and difficult to change (Berger and Luckmann 1967; North 1992). Therein lies their promise — and challenge — for those wishing to institute sustainable development by design: the task of changing today's institutions will be difficult, but once successfully and appropriately changed, the new or revised rules are likely to have an impact over centuries.
