Sustainable Development Essay
Sustainability has been a hot topic for over many years. However, the real question rising nowadays is: ‘How sustainable am I, really?’. In order to answer this question I first had to research the term itself and sustainable development. When growing up, I did not realize that sustainability would be of such great importance in our daily lives in the future. In this essay I will explain all the ‘ins and outs’ regarding sustainable development and which sustainable measures I will take after my research.
Sustainable development
Sustainable development has been a frequently used term worldwide over the past years.
One of the first definitions used was by The World Commission on Environment and Development in
1987. According to this Commission sustainable development means ‘’the paths of human progress which meet the needs and aspirations of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their needs’’. In order to make this statement more fluent and easy to explain in ‘Our Common Future’ report was stated that stating sustainable development is about
‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. In addition to this definition can be stated that this is meant without harming renewable resources and unique environmental systems such as water, land and energy (Rosenbaum 1993 and
Vieria 1993). While these definitions are still used today, hundreds of definitions of sustainable development and sustainability have been created by different institutions, business and countries.
Sustainable development implies the consideration of different needs, namely the needs of people and the needs of our environment, at this moment and in the future. Further sustainable development has been a booming topic over the past years, since society and governments believe it is crucial to educate people about