The Meaning of Social-Environmental Sustainability - Economics and Ecology: United for a Sustainable World - page 117

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TheMeaningofSocial-Environmental
Sustainabil ity
Social-environmental sustainability is just another term for intergenerational
equity and refers to the responsibility of the current generation to its own
members, its descendants, and all generations of the future. The concept of
intergenerational equity or environmental justice , from the human point of
view, asserts that we owe something to every other person sharing the planet
with us, both those present and those yet unborn. But what exactly do we
have to give?
The only things of value we have to give are our love, our trust, our respect,
and the benefit of our experience. These are the essence of human values
embodied in every option we pass forward—or withhold in every option we
foreclose. When everything is said and done, all we have to give the children
of today, tomorrow, and beyond are choices and some things of value from
which to choose. The quality of those options is governed by the mutual sup-
port of the three pillars of sustainability.
The Three Pillars of Sustainability
Sustainability , as a term, was first launched into the arena of common dis-
course in 1989 by a United Nations publication known as the “Brundtland
Report.” 1 At first, it was treated with suspicion by businesses and others who
perceived it to counter their interests in promoting economic growth. The
definitions seemed esoteric and hard to pin down for people of practical
bent. But then, the report was meant merely as a framework within which
people could begin a discourse on sustainability and its implications for the
world's future.
The three pillars of sustainability (ecological integrity, social equity, and
economic stability, often referred to as “the triple bottom-line”) are the most
easily understood and thus commonly used frame of reference with respect
to the subject of sustainability in all its varied forms. In its simplest form, any
act or project must simultaneously meet appropriate criteria in the social,
ecological, and economic spheres in order to qualify as sustainable, or as
sustainable development. The triple bottom-line is often depicted visually as
a set of overlapping circles.
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