Social and cultural implications

Abstract

A sustainable society exists within the self-perpetuating limits of its environment. It is not necessarily a ‘no-growth’ society but rather a society that recognises the limits of growth and looks for alternative ways of growing. Growth in this sense means the physical, population and economic growth of a society so that sustainable development is a pattern of resource-use that meets human needs while preserving the environment. Sustainable development means adjusting economic growth to remain within bounds set by naturally replenished systems, subject to the scope for human ingenuity and careful husbanding of resources and technological advance, coupled with the redistribution of resources and power that guarantees adequate conditions of liveability for all present and future generations. Sustainable development therefore refers to that progress which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.