A Working Definition of Sustainability

Sustainability broadly reflects the recognition that our actions today affect our prospects for tomorrow, and increasingly, these actions will affect the quality of life and prospects for future generations.

We take sustainability to be an attitude, a world view, a holistic way of thinking about ourselves in the context of the ecosphere. At its heart, sustainability is a reaction to the single-bottom line thinking that undergirds the vast majority of our societal decision making—in that we tend to show an inordinate deference to monetary value, and often disregard the social and ecological costs of our decisions. In this sense, sustainability is about triple-bottom line thinking, a way of making decisions that gives due consideration to profit, people and planet.

Sustainability requires that those resources which contribute to human welfare be managed such that they are conserved or improved for future generations [1]. Many of the natural resources we consume are finite and non-renewable on human timescales (e.g., fossil & nuclear fuels, minerals), whilst some renewable resources are becoming nonrenewable due to unsustainable use (e.g., fisheries, water, forests, soils) [2,3]. Sustainable development must convert the currently unsustainable practices in industrialized nations to sustainable ones, as well as improve standards of living in developing countries in a sustainable manner [4]. Lifestyles which minimize needless consumption and waste are essential for sustainability.

Ecological sustainability centers on stewardship of resources, ecosystems, the preservation of biodiversity, and natural processes (e.g., ecological succession, microevolution) [5]. A sustainable global economy will be achieved when:

Rates of use of renewable resources do not exceed regeneration rates; rates of use of nonrenewable resources do not exceed rates of development of renewable substitutes; [and] rates of pollution emission do not exceed assimilative capacities of the environment. [6]

Socially, sustainability reflects actions that promote community, relationship to place, cultural diversity, and maintenance of local knowledge, equity, environmental justice, self-worth, and non-violence [7].

Sustainability is a Guiding Principle for Ramapo College:

All strategic goals and objectives must be consistent with the commitment to environmental, social, and economic sustainability by the College. [8]