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Introduction: Sustainability: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives
Citation:
CABEZAS, H. AND U. DIWEKAR. Introduction: Sustainability: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives. Chapter 1, Sustainability: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives. Bentham Science Publishers, Ltd., Oak Park, IL, , pp3-8, (2012).
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
WHAT DOES SUSTAINABILITY MEAN? The word sustainability has over the past two or three decades become widely used in both professional and public speech. But what does it actually mean? As again mentioned in Chapter 9, according to one standard reference of the English language, Webster’s New World Dictionary states that the word sustainability originates from a fusion of two Latin words: sus which means up and tenere which means to hold [1]. Hence, the roots of the word sustainability would indicate that it means to hold up. But the question remains as to what it is that is being held up. To further investigate this question, we next note that the first written use of the term sustainability in the modern context appears in the January 1972 issue of the The Ecologist (Goldsmith et al., 1972) [2]. The article by Goldsmith et al. places sustainability in the context of ecosystems which are required to support human existence. Lastly, we revisit the more recent and most widely accepted definition of sustainability or sustainable development which is attributed to the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, 1987) [3] or Brundtland Commission – the commission chair was Gro Harlem Brundtland. The Brundland Commission stated in the final report that “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
