The document discusses the concepts of sustainability from ecological, economic, political, and cultural perspectives. It defines sustainability as ensuring biological systems remain diverse and productive indefinitely. Sustainable development aims to meet human development goals while maintaining natural systems. This involves balancing social, political, and economic needs with environmental protection. The document also discusses how urban and transportation systems can be designed or improved to be more sustainable. Education is highlighted as a key part of developing a more sustainable society.

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Ratnesh kanungo
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2. Meaning of Sustainability
In ecology, sustainability is the capacity to endure;
it is how biological systems remain diverse and
productive indefinitely. The organizing principle for
sustainability is sustainable development, which
includes the four interconnected domains: ecology,
economics, politics and culture.
Sustainable development
Sustainable development (SD) is a process for
meeting human development goals while
maintaining the ability of natural systems to
continue to provide the natural resources and
ecosystem services upon which the economy and
society depend. Sustainable development ties
together concern for the carrying capacity of
natural systems with the social, political, and
economic challenges faced by humanity.
Sustainable development is the organizing
principle for sustaining finite resources necessary
to provide for the needs of future generations of
life on the planet.

3. SUSTAINING HUMAN SOCIETIES
Almost half of the world’s population lives in urban
areas and half in rural areas. Government policies,
poverty, lack of land to grow food, declining
agricultural jobs, famine, and war that force people
out of rural areas are all factors that determine how
urban areas develop. Urban areas are rarely self-
sustaining, threaten biodiversity, destroy and
damage ecosystems, lack trees, grow little of their
own food, concentrate pollutants and noise, spread
infectious disease, and are centers of poverty,
crimes, and terrorism. Urban areas relying on mass
transportation spread vertically and urban areas
relying on automobiles spread horizontally.
Advantages of automobiles include convenience,
personal benefits, and boosted economies,
Disadvantages include air pollution, promotion of
urban sprawl, increase in death rate, and time-and
gas-wasting traffic jams. Advantages of bicycles and
motor scooters include low cost, little to no air or
noise pollution, require little space, and are energy
efficient. Disadvantages include little accident

4. protection, impractical for long distances, can be
tiring, little parking, and gas scooter engines emit
high air pollution. Mass transit rail systems are more
energy efficient than cars, produce lower air
pollution, require less land, cause fewer injuries and
deaths, and reduce car congestion. Disadvantages
include high cost to build and maintain, rigid
schedules, noise pollution, and they are cost
effective only in densely populated areas. Buses are
more flexible than rail systems, can easily be
rerouted, cost less to develop, and can reduce car
use. Disadvantages include rigid schedules, noise
pollution, and they are not always cost efficient.
Rapid rail systems can reduce car and plane travel,
are ideal for long trips, and re more efficient than
cars and planes. Disadvantages include high
operation and maintenance cost, noise pollution, and
they are not always cost efficient. Cities can be made
more sustainable and more desirable places to live
by creating parks, greenbelts, urban growth
boundaries, cluster developments, mixed-use
villages, greenways, and Eco cities.

5. The general definition of economic sustainability
is the ability of an economy to support a defined
level of economic production indefinitely.
It has been suggested that because of rural poverty
and overexploitation, environmental resources
should be treated as important economic assets,
called natural capital. Economic development has
traditionally required a growth in the gross
domestic product. This model of unlimited personal
and GDP growth may be over. Sustainable
development may involve improvements in the
quality of life for many but may necessitate a
decrease in resource consumption.

6. Environmental sustainability involves making
decisions and taking action that are in the interests of
protecting the natural world, with particular
emphasis on preserving the capability of the
environment to support human life. It is an important
topic at the present time, as people are realizing the
full impact that businesses and individuals can have
on the environment. Basically the world's standard
definition of environmental sustainability is
sustainable development, which means sustainable
economic growth, which is an oxymoron. No form
of economic growth can be continued indefinitely.
Furthermore, all economic growth today is terribly
environmentally degrading. Environmental
sustainability is about making responsible decisions
that will reduce your business' negative impact on
the environment. It is not simply about reducing the
amount of waste you produce or using less energy,

7. but is concerned with developing processes that will
lead to businesses becoming completely sustainable
in the future.
Currently, environmental sustainability is a topical
issue that receives plenty of attention from the media
and from different governmental departments. This
is a result of the amount of research going into
assessing the impact that human activity can have on
the environment.
Businesses can potentially cause damage to all areas
of the environment. Some of the common
environmental concerns include:
 damaging rainforests and woodlands through
logging and agricultural clearing
 polluting and over-fishing of oceans, rivers and
lakes
 polluting the atmosphere through the burning of
fossil fuels
 damaging prime agricultural and cultivated land
through the use of unsustainable farming
practices

8. Education for Sustainable Development
Education is an essential tool for achieving
sustainability. People around the world
recognize that current economic development
trends are not sustainable and that public
awareness, education, and training are key to
moving society toward sustainability. Through
education for sustainable living, students gain

9. knowledge, skills, and values to address the
environmental and social challenges of the
coming decades. They learn to think
ecologically, understand the
interconnectedness of human and natural
systems, and develop the capacity to apply this
understanding so that human communities and
natural ecosystems may thrive. Education for
Sustainable Development allows every human
being to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes
and values necessary to shape a sustainable
future. Education for Sustainable Development
means including key sustainable development
issues into teaching and learning; for example,
climate change, disaster risk reduction,

10. biodiversity, poverty reduction, and sustainable
consumption.
Sustainable development is largely about people,
their well-being, and equity in their relationships
with each other, in a context where nature-society
imbalances can threaten economic and social
stability. Because climate change, its drivers, its
impacts and its policy responses will interact with
economic production and services, human
settlements and human societies, climate change is
likely to be a significant factor in the sustainable
development of many areas.
Impacts of climate change on development paths
also include impacts of climate-change response

11. policies, which can affect a wide range of
development-related choices, from energy sources
and costs to industrial competitiveness to patterns
of tourism.
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