Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1.1
Definitions of sustainability from several sources.
Definition
Reference
“[D]evelopment that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
United Nations General
Assembly, 1987
“[S]ustainability occurs when we maintain or improve the material and
social conditions for human health and the environment over time
without exceeding the ecological capabilities that support them.”
Sikdar, 2003
“Sustainability requires that businesses use resources in ways that meet
the needs of the enterprise and its stakeholders today, while protecting,
sustaining, and enhancing future resources and the environment.”
Gorman and Krehbiel, 1997
“Business strategies and practices that promote the long-term well being
of the environment, society and the bottom line.”
Food Marketing Institute
Sustainability Task Force, n.d.
“A sustainable product or process is one that constrains resource
consumption and waste generation to an acceptable level, makes a
positive contribution to the satisfaction of human needs, and provides
enduring economic value to the business enterprise.”
Bakshi and Fiksel, 2003
When talking about sustainability, it is important to define the time frame in which a
practice is sustainable because it is unlikely that any activity perpetuates indefinitely in time.
The current economic system, which includes food production and distribution, is based on
the use of limited natural resources and we can expect the system will last as far as those
resources are available unless we find substitutes.
A sustainable company is an organization that keep itself alive in time. To be viable and
lasting, a company needs profits; resources, including capital, energy, and raw materials; and
customers and a workforce. These three needs are also called by some the “three dimensions
of sustainability,” and there is fair consensus among organizations about its validity. These
days most corporations talk about the three components of sustainability as economic, social,
and environmental.
Going back to our working definition of a sustainable company, since the main objective
has been the generation of profits, decisions about investment have been based on one
dimension: the return on investment (ROI). So, it is fairly understandable that the addition of
two new dimensions can increase management complexity. Furthermore, the two new
dimensions—social and environmental—cannot be reduced to one indicator, like the ROI, that
is easily understandable.
The challenge for companies to stay in business in the future will not be only to make
money but also to react to serious social and environmental issues. Examples of social
aspects include stakeholders' distrust in response to adverse socioeconomic impacts,
such as widespread poverty, lack of education, and social disintegration due to displace-
ment of traditional lifestyles; and environmental aspects, such as depletion of natural
resources to climate change (World Bank, 2001).
Example of an unsustainable food industry
Monterey is a beautiful costal community located 115 miles (72 km) south of San Francisco,
California. In the 1850s, Chinese settlers immigrated to the area attracted by the harvesting of
abalone. They soon were followed by Japanese fishermen in the 1890s, who established the
first abalone canneries in the area. Italian immigrants moved to the Monterey bay from 1870s
through 1910s and brought new fishing technologies that helped to develop the sardine
canning industry (Winter & Company, 2004).
