ABSTRACT
The research on nature and the environment study sought to quantify the scale of the challenge in respect to each of its selected eco-capacity indicators and in relation to quantitative sustainable claim levels. It seeks to anticipate the scale of impact on the environment if present demographic, economic, social and technological trends worldwide continue unchecked and policies remain. The report of the study made a seminal contribution to the field and is widely cited in almost all studies on sustainability. The approach takes the concept of eco-capacity as a starting point and proposes taxonomy of indicators based on three dimensions of unsustain-ability: pollution, depletion and encroachment. The profiles show that, even in the current situation, more eco-capacity is used than is consistent with sustainability. The scale of the challenge to technology is a function, also, of progress in improving equity.
