What is sustainable development?

The idea of ‘sustainable development’ became widespread with the 1987 publication of ‘Our
Common Future‘, a report from the World Commission on Environment and Development (the
Brundtland Commission).

Its definition of “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs” still provides the broad underpinning for
current thinking and practice, based on balancing people’s economic and social needs with the
preservation and enhancement of natural resources and ecosystems.

Sustainable development can be understood as primarily a process (a way of doing things,

including principles and values) and as implying practical goals or desirable outcomes, such as
the UN Sustainable Development Goals being developed in 2015.

However, there are different ways of thinking about how sustainable development is best
conceptualised – and put into practice. Our understanding continues to change, particularly
with increasing scientific knowledge of environmental impacts, as well as through participatory
processes which help pin down and determine priorities and desired goals.

Andrea Westall adds:

Sustainable development is often illustrated by a simple diagram showing three overlapping

circles representing social, economic and environmental progress, implying the need for
balancing and managing the trade-offs between them.
However, other approaches either reframe these relationships or set out principles and goals to
guide policy-making. The UK government, for example, proposed a five principle approach
incorporating good governance and ‘sound’ science.
The Welsh government’s Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Bill has set out seven
wellbeing goals, partly determined through widespread consultation, to be achieved through
sustainable development principles.

Greater scientific understanding around ‘planetary boundaries’ has reinforced the idea of limits,
leading to a different model of relationships between the environmental, the social and the
economic, with non-negotiable environmental constraints on human activity. Kate Raworth,
then at Oxfam, created a useful model of a safe operating space for humankind, including
both environmental limits and a social ‘floor’ or minimum set of needs.