8.3. What is Sustainability?

Sustainability Defined

1:  capable of being sustained -to provide what is needed for (something or someone) to exist, continue, etc.

2a :  of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged.

2b :  of or relating to a lifestyle involving the use of sustainable methods.

based on “Sustainable.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 29 May 2014. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sustainable.

“meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

The above definition describes the idea of sustainability but it also reveals the difficulty in attaining sustainability: It is very hard to evaluate.

Reference: B Brundtland, H. Our Common Future, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, for the World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987), (p. 43).