What is Sustainability?
“In our every deliberation we
must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.”
—from the Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy
“Then I say the earth belongs
to each . . . generation during its course, fully and in its own right, no
generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its
own existence.”
—Thomas Jefferson,
“Each generation, sharing in
the heritage of the Earth, has a duty as trustee for future generations to
prevent irreversible and irreparable harm to life on Earth and to human freedom
and dignity.”
—Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau
“Sustainability is a perpetuating symphony of the physical, social,
and spiritual aspects of life.”
The United Nations defines Sustainability as “choices that meet
the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their needs.”
The Sierra Club defines Sustainability as “the use of goods and
services that satisfy basic needs and improve the quality of life, while
minimizing the consumption of irreplaceable natural resources and the
production of toxic materials, waste, and pollution.”
“We should think of our
resources not as having been left to us by our parents, but as having been
loaned to us by our children.”
—
a Kenyan proverb.
“Don’t eat your seed corn.”
—
a Farmer’s proverb.
"Sustainability is not only about man and the environment. It is also about the social fabric of our
world and the painful divide between the rich and the poor."
— Paul Hawken, businessman and author of "Natural
Capitalism" and "The Ecology of Commerce."