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What is Sustainability?
National Information
- EPA's National Pollution Prevention Homepage
- Basic Information
- Grants & Funding
- Laws and Policy
- Partnerships
Contact Information
Pollution Prevention and Innovation Team
U.S. EPA Region 4
r4sustainability@epa.gov
While it may seem the hot new buzz word, “Sustainability,” has existed in the international community and the corporate world since the late 1980s and early 1990s.
- In 1987, the United Nation’s “Brundtland Commission” was the first to adopt the most widely accepted definition of sustainable development: “….development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
- The underlying sustainability principle: often referred to as “Three Legged Stool” or the “Triple Bottom Line”—the environment, economical and societal needs—upon which the three tenets of sustainability must be balanced.
Sustainability is NOT a destination, rather it is a journey.