The definitions

The Brundtland Report (1987) defined sustainability as:

Ensuring that development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. ¹

This definition implied a continuous process rather than an event or a quality. It acknowledged the need to use the earth’s resources to meet the basic human needs of shelter, food and warmth for an increasing number of people. Brundtland did not suggest a reversion to a primitive life to ensure that the inventory of the earth’s resources is left more or less as we find it but it did urge that the minimum impact should be made upon the resource stock. The Report emphasised four sustainable policies to ensure that the needs of future populations are not compromised:

Resources are used efficiently to minimise the depletion of finite resources.

Any wastes are disposed of with minimal damage to the environment so that the continuing natural renewal of the resource base is unimpeded.

The growth in world population is slowed.

‘Development’ is spread more evenly around the global population.

‘Development’ in this context means expanding global production, partly to even out standards of living across the world, and partly to satisfy the needs of an expected increase in global population. This expansion of production may only be achieved by more factories consuming more raw materials, backed by more offices, shops and transport, trends which Brundtland accepts as unavoidable but which should be kept to a minimum. This implies that damage must be recognised and quantified; otherwise its management and minimisation would be impossible.