Sustainable Development

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Sustainable development is a strategy by which communities seek economic development approaches that also benefit the local environment and quality of life. It has become an important guide to many communities that have discovered that traditional approaches to planning and development are creating, rather than solving, societal and environmental problems. Where traditional approaches can lead to congestion, sprawl, pollution, and resource overconsumption, sustainable development offers real, lasting solutions that will strengthen our future. 

Definitions and Principles

Sustainable development is not a new concept. It is the latest expression of a long-standing ethic involving people's relationship with the environment, and the current generation's responsibilities to future generations.  

For a community to be truly sustainable, it must adopt a three-pronged approach that considers economic, environmental and cultural resources. Communities must consider these needs not only in the short term, but also in the long term.  

Definitions of Sustainable Development

Here are some common descriptions of sustainable development:

"Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." -- United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development

"Then I say the earth belongs to each . . . generation during its course, fully and in its own right, no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence." -- Thomas Jefferson, September 6, 1789

"Sustainability refers to the ability of a society, ecosystem, or any such ongoing system to continue functioning into the indefinite future without being forced into decline through exhaustion. . . of key resources." -- Robert Gilman, President of Context Institute

"A sustainable community effort consists of a long-term, integrated, systems approach to developing and achieving a healthy community by jointly addressing economic, environmental, and social issues. Fostering a strong sense of community and building partnerships and consensus among key stakeholders are also important elements of such efforts.

"The focus and scale of sustainability efforts depend on local conditions, including resources, politics, individual actions, and the unique features of the community. The sustainable communities approach has been applied to issues as varied as urban sprawl, inner-city and brownfield redevelopment, economic development and growth, ecosystem management, agriculture, biodiversity, green buildings, energy conservation, watershed management, and pollution prevention. Many of these issues and other community problems cannot easily be addressed by traditional approaches or traditional elements within our society.

"Many people feel it is better to address such problems through a more collaborative and holistic systems approach because such problems are diffuse, multidisciplinary, multiagency, multistakeholder and multisector in nature." -- Beth E. Lachman, Critical Technologies Institute, "Linking Sustainable Community Activities to Pollution Prevention: A Sourcebook," April 1997.

"Sustainability is the [emerging] doctrine that economic growth and development must take place, and be maintained over time, within the limits set by ecology in the broadest sense - by the interrelations of human beings and their works, the biosphere and the physical and chemical laws that govern it . . . It follows that environmental protection and economic development are complementary rather than antagonistic processes." -- William D. Ruckelshaus, "Toward a Sustainable World," Scientific American, September 1989.

"The word sustainable has roots in the Latin subtenir, meaning 'to hold up' or 'to support from below.' A community must be supported from below - by its inhabitants, present and future.  Certain places, through the peculiar combination of physical, cultural, and, perhaps, spiritual characteristics, inspire people to care for their community. Theses are the places where
sustainability has the best chance of taking hold." -- Muscoe Martin, "A Sustainable Community Profile," from Places, Winter 1995.

Sustainable development provides a framework under which communities can use resources efficiently, create efficient infrastructures, protect and enhance quality of life, and create new businesses to strengthen their economies. It can help us create healthy communities that can sustain our generation, as well as those that follow us. 

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