There are many well intentioned sustainable development initiatives in which the people involved believe they are making a real contribution to sustainability. Equally, a large number of organisations are using it as a marketing tool, which is not altogether unreasonable if they are making a real effort in the direction of real sustainability. Unfortunately, the term is all too frequently hijacked and erected as a smokescreen behind which to carry on business as usual in the form of unsustainable growth.
Even amongst the genuinely well-intentioned, disappointingly few seem to have grasped the true implications of sustainability. There is a widespread misconception that a few add-on pollution controls plus a small increase in efficiency are all that is necessary to safeguard the future.
Clarity of perception is not helped by the somewhat unfortunate terminology of sustainable development itself, which blurs the distinction between process and condition. Interpreted literally, it is probably meaningless. Development is a process involving change which, by its nature, cannot be sustainable. What matters is that the condition achieved as a result of the development should be sustainable, ie development to sustainability.
However, whether we like it or not, the original term looks set to stay which leaves us with a twofold challenge:
This page last updated: 16-March-2003