ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the application of the basic concepts of sustainability to the micro level and suggests a set of corporate sustainability indicators. The ‘sustainable development’ and ‘sustainable consumption and production’ are used by different actors with diverging definitions and biased interpretations. In the North sustainable development was predominantly understood as one more new environmental concept, like environmental modernisation, greening the industrial metabolism or safeguarding biodiversity as the common heritage of humankind had been beforehand. The World Commission for Environment and Development has given the most frequently quoted criterion for sustainable development by characterising it as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. The basic theme of sustainability is to maintain functioning systems in the long run, to avoid irreversible damages and to leave to future generations the choice of how they wish to use their heritage to provide the kind of quality of life they prefer.
