Sustainable development basics

1. Sustainable Development
Compiled by : Sayed Mohammad Naim KHALID ( 27 March 2012)
Introduction
You may have heard people talking about Sustainable Development – in
public meetings, on television and on the radio. Consultants talk about it, university
professors lecture on it, and at various levels of government, it may even be
mandated. But what is Sustainable Development?
That is precisely the question this Guide is intended to address. In the
following pages, you will read of the origins of Sustainable Development, its
theoretical underpinnings, its major programs, and the means by which it is
implemented.
When you have finished reading this document, you will have the knowledge
necessary to begin identifying the vast array of Sustainable Development programs
that arise.
Sustainable development is defined as the balanced social, economic and
stable development that is able to supply the needs of the current generation without
jeopardizing the capacity to meet the demand of the future generations, i.e. without
exhausting the natural resources for the future. But there is a difinition from UNESCO
saying that we should not consider the future generations , « meeting the needs of
the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own
needs”.
World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987). Our Common
Future. The Bruntland Commission, UNESCO.

2. The concept of sustainable developed emerged in 1987 with the publication of
the report “Our Common Future” by the UN’s Global Commission on the Environment
and Development.
The four-pillar model of sustainability incorporates four interlinked dimensions:
environmental responsibility, economic health, social equity, and cultural
vitality
1. Ethics (Environmental Responsibility): there must be recognition of the need to
achieve ecological balance, as what is at stake is the existence of all living things,
including the human race, i.e. the future generations.
2. Temporal: planning must contemplate the future, breech with the logic that things
must be immediate, and apply the rule of precaution.
3. Social: Understand that only a social with less inequalities and political pluralism
can produce sustainable development.
4. Practice: consumption production habits and behavior must change.
Thus, to achieve sustainable development and prevent environmental and
social degradation, citizens must change their personal, social behaviors and
consumption habits, and companies must implement changes in their production
processes.
The cooperation of each individual is through the rational use of the natural
resources, water in special, which is more closely present in everyone’s daily life.
The list also includes the rational use of energy, as it originates from several natural
sources.
A way to use less fuel (and reduce pollution) is to leave your car at home and
use public transport to go to work and perform other activities.
Recycling, in its turn, is a way to reuse several materials and can be easily
implemented at home or work. Consumption should also be more rational: before
buying new furniture, clothes, or technological products, for example, it is important
that each citizen reflect if they really need them.
Companies cooperate to sustainable development by adopting less polluting
production methods, reforesting the areas from which wood is extracted, social, and
productive inclusion of people and traditional communities in agribusiness and
extraction activities, rational use of water, among other responsibilities.

3. The production and adoption of technologies based on renewable power
sources are also ways to guarantee sustainable development. In addition, the supply
of goods and services needed for better quality of life for the population is made
easier with planned infrastructure, which should also prevent negative environmental
impacts.
What is the relationship between culture, community development, and
sustainability?
Sustainable community development is concerned not just with retaining local
industries, services, and resources, but also with doing so in an environmentally,
economically, and socially beneficial manner. It increasingly recognizes the need to
incorporate culture and creativity in sustainable plans and strategies. This is reflected
in the proliferation and implementation of “creative city” approaches to policies,
development plans, and strategies in cities and communities around the globe.
This model recognizes that a community’s vitality and quality of life is closely related
to the vitality and quality of its cultural engagement, expression, dialogue, and
celebration. The four-pillars model further recognizes that the contribution of culture
to building lively cities and communities where people want to live, work, and visit,
plays a major role in supporting social and economic health.
What are the cultural elements of a sustainable community?
The diverse cultural elements of a community, both tangible and intangible,
are avenues through which many socio-cultural, economic, and environmental
dimensions of a community are embodied. Key cultural elements in a community can
also be used as anchors and foci for policy and planning efforts to ensure cultural
resources are integrated as a pillar of a community’s sustainability.
Cultural elements can be grouped under four general headings:
Physical assets
Heritage
Placemaking Meeting/sharing spaces Public art
Opportunities for cultural engagement
Social opportunities Learning opportunities
Media
Underlying policy and support systems
Sustainable development in 6 big topics:
1. Sustainable Places - Smarter Choices, Smarter Places, sustainable health
initiatives, regeneration and greenspace support, architecture and design
support to develop demonstration projects.
2. Climate Change - Low carbon initiatives.
3. People and Nature - Biodiversity, landscapes, heritage projects, environmental
volunteering.
4. Consumption and Production - Waste, Energy Efficiency, Food.
5. Cultural Identity - Promotion and support of a strong cultural identity.
6. Sustainable transport – Flights, cycling, millage
VALUES UNDERLYING THE MILLENNIUM DECLARATION
The Millennium Declaration—which outlines 60 goals for peace; development; the
environment; human rights; the vulnerable, hungry, and poor; Africa; and the United
Nations—is founded on a core set of values described as follows: “We consider

4. certain fundamental values to be essential to international relations in the twenty-first
century. These include:
1. Freedom. Men and women have the right to live their lives and raise their
children in dignity, free from hunger and from the fear of violence, oppression
or injustice. Democratic and participatory governance based on the will of the
people best assures these rights.
2. Equality. No individual and no nation must be denied the opportunity to
benefit from development. The equal rights and opportunities of women and
men must be assured.
3. Solidarity. Global challenges must be managed in a way that distributes the
costs and burdens fairly in accordance with basic principles of equity and
social justice. Those who suffer or who benefit least deserve help from those
who benefit most.
4. Tolerance. Human beings must respect one other, in all their diversity of
belief, culture and language. Differences within and between societies should
be neither feared nor repressed, but cherished as a precious asset of human-
ity. A culture of peace and dialogue among all civilizations should be actively
promoted.
5. Respect for nature. Prudence must be shown in the management of all living
species and natural resources, in accordance with the precepts of sus-
tainable development. Only in this way can the immeasurable riches provided
to us by nature be preserved and passed on to our descendants. The current
unsustainable patterns of production and consumption must be changed in the
interest of our future welfare and that of our descendants.
6. Shared responsibility. Responsibility for managing worldwide econom- ic
and social development, as well as threats to international peace and secu-
rity, must be shared among the nations of the world and should be exercised
multi-laterally. As the most universal and most representative organization in
the world, the United Nations must play the central role.”
United Nations General Assembly, “United Nations Millennium Declaration,”
Resolution 55/2, United Nations A/RES/55/2, 18 September 2000,
A proposed small set of sustainable development indicators (Report of the Joint
UNECE/OECD/Eurostat Working Group on Statistics for Sustainable Development,
2008)
Indicator
Stock Indicators Flow Indicators
domain
Foundational Index of changes in age-specific
well-being Health-adjusted life expectancy mortality and morbidity (place
holder)
Percentage of population with Enrolment in post-secondary
post-secondary education education
Temperature deviations from
Greenhouse gas emissions
normals
Environment Ground-level ozone and fine
Smog-forming pollutant emissions
particulate concentrations
Quality-adjusted water
Nutrient loadings to water bodies
availability
Fragmentation of natural Conversion of natural habitats to
habitats other uses
Real per capita net foreign Real per capita investment in
financial asset holdings foreign financial assets
Real per capita produced Real per capita net investment in

5. capital produced capital
Real per capita net investment in
Real per capita human capital
human capital
Real per capita net depletion of
Real per capita natural capital
natural capital
Reserves of energy resources Depletion of energy resources
Reserves of mineral resources Depletion of mineral resources
Timber resource stocks Depletion of timber resources
Marine resource stocks Depletion of marine resources
What Can You Do?
Sustainable Development is restructuring our lives, and is targeting our
children through an educational regime that seeks to develop collectivist attitudes,
values, and beliefs. Sustainable Development documents expressly call for the
elimination of private property 26 and the freedom that private property supports. It
supplants long-standing State laws, and causes irreparable harm to our economy
and our society. If individual members of our society do nothing, the continuing loss
of liberty will result in increasing social confusion and discord, rising resource
shortages, financial decay, and a dimming future for us and our posterity.
The looming battle of ideas should be recognized as a classic – and perhaps
ultimate – battle between Liberty and Tyranny. The social, economic, and political
transformations Sustainable Development requires will mean the suppression of
unalienable rights for all people