ABSTRACT
In this chapter I explain the concept of threefold sustainability. This concept plays a key role for the sustainability strategy proposed in this book. Threefold sustainability is defined as the ability of a society to secure in the long term, firstly, its natural basis of life by a high level of resource productivity, secondly, a fair standard of living of the vast majority of the population, and thirdly its social cohesion, that is its ability to make and maintain widely accepted collective decisions. The environmental, economic and social dimensions of threefold sustainability are interdependent. Strategies of sustainable development which neglect the interdepency between the three dimensions are likely to increase conflict on sustainable development. This inhibits the strategies or even makes them fail. Systematic consideration of interdependence, on the other hand, opens up new possibilities for resolving the conflicts associated with any sustainable development. An important way to exploit these possibilities is by making radical innovations designed to open up a rapid increase of resource productivity. However, this path only leads to the desired goal if the employment losses almost always associated with radical innovations are proactively avoided or compensated.
