What is Sustainable Development?

The accepted definition of sustainable development is:

" Development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".
(The Brundtland Report, 1987)

Sustainable development is based on balancing social, economic and environmental costs and benefits to ensure the best future. It is about looking at long term as well as short term costs and consequences, and about looking at global as well as local aspects of any decision.

Put simply, sustainability occurs when human activities do not irreversibly damage the environment:

• In which natural habitats, the global abundance and diverity of flora and fauna are maintained,
• In which the extraction and use of natural resources is within their natural replacement rates,
• In which natural cycles or process are maintained,
• In which human impacts can be repaired by the Earth's natural and biological process.
  (Source: Environmental Strategy for Northern Ireland, NIEL, 1996)

A lot of time has passed since the concept of sustainability rose at the Rio de Janerio Earth Summit (June 1992), and Northern Ireland only issued its first Strategy for Sustainable Development in May 2006. There is now an onus in Northern Ireland for sustainable development principles to be at the heart of all decision making processes.