ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses our individual ethical decisions as consumers, as well as the responsibility of businesses and governments to support consumption that is environmentally sustainable. It constructs ethical presumptions based on our duty, character, relationships, and human rights. The Brundtland Report by the UN World Commission on Environment and Development asserts the right to sustainable development for every society. The issue of equity concerns how to apportion responsibility for achieving economic development and consumption that is environmentally sustainable. The scriptures of Jews and Muslims teach that serving God leads to the joy of salvation, and Christian scripture adds the Great Commandment that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. In each of these traditions being faithful is now understood to involve caring for the earth. It is no accident, therefore, that the virtue of frugality is a goal of religious orders, whether these are Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist.
