Sustainable Development History and Background

The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro (Earth Summit) endorsed the Brundtland Commission's definition of sustainable development and popularized the term to an international audience of government leaders, NGOs, industrialists, and scientists. Earth Summit dignitaries developed and approved the principles of sustainable development in Agenda 21, a broad plan of action based on the need to balance economic development with the necessities of a healthy environment.

One year later, the US President's Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) was created to define the challenges between our need for economic growth and our obligation to protect and preserve the world's environment.

Consisting of leaders from government, business, environmental, civil rights, labor, and Native American organizations, the PCSD focused on overcoming years of conflict between competing interests as it defined a national environmental, economic, and social agenda.

In 1996, the Council endorsed the Brundtland Commission's definition and produced what The New York Times called "a rare consensus" between the representatives of business and the environmental movement as it established the idea that "the quality of the country's future rests on integrating the economy, equity, and environment in national policy."

The PCSD concluded that in order to meet the Brundtland Commission's definition, "the United States must change by moving from conflict to collaboration and adopting stewardship and individual responsibility as tenets by which to live."

While the PCSD was establishing guidelines for broader governmental policies promoting sustainable development, a new ethic advocating social responsibility was emerging from within the private sector.

As Paul Hawken, author of The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability, writes "We often hear about business standards and principles, but perhaps a better idea for the restorative economy is practices. I am drawn to the word not only for its practical sense, but because it implies that there is something to be learned, and that through consistent and applied practice, one improves one's ability, gets better at a skill, strives for understanding. Practice seems a more humble word than principle, a word behind which it is easy to hide, and which often leads to some sort of failure. You can betray a principle, but you can always keep on practicing."

With the term sustainable development now part of the popular lexicon, our future success relies on how it is practiced by government, business, as well as individuals and communities. Compelling justification for the commitment can be found in the PCSD's vision statement: "A sustainable United States will have a growing economy that provides equitable opportunities for satisfying livelihoods and a safe, healthy, high quality of life for current and future generations. Our nation will protect its environment, its natural resource base, and the functions and viability of natural systems on which all life depends."