- What is sustainability?
- Sustainability or sustainability?
- Economic sustainability
- Social sustainability
- Environmental sustainability
- Principles of a sustainable society
We explain what sustainability is and its economic, social and ecological axes. In addition, the principles of a sustainable society.
What is sustainability?
Currently, we speak of sustainability or sustainability to refer to the capacity of a production system or model to satisfy three fundamental critical axes:
- Economic axis: It involves your cost effectiveness.
- Social axis: Aiming at equity.
- Ecological axis: That is, do not ruin the environment in the process.
The search for a model society Sustainable, then, means that you try to build one that meets these three requirements, so that it can last and persevere indefinitely.
The concept of sustainability was taken from the ecology, where it is used to describe the relationships that a species is able to weave with its environment, to guarantee itself through Balance a long existence. Stated in economic terms, it is a dynamic of exploitation of the resources that remains below the limit of its renewal.
The latter is vital for human societies, whose demand for resources is, according to certain traditional economic postulates, infinite. There will always be a need for more and new resources to keep society productive.
However, depending on how these resources are obtained, it is possible to destroy our own society in the process, or destroy the environment and be left with no planet to live on (and no resources to exploit), or we can build an insufficient model that does not allow us to live as we wish.
These last three cases are unsustainable scenarios, that is, they cannot last over time, since they inevitably lead to the crisis and to the end of the model itself.
Therefore, sustainability consists of moving in the opposite direction in all three fields, as proposed, in terms of urgent need, in the 1987 Brundtland Report, the work of the former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland (1939- ), under the title of “Our common future” (“Our Common Future" in English).
Sustainability or sustainability?
Both terms are valid when referring to the same thing. The two words are listed by the Royal Spanish Academy as synonymous, since they refer, broadly speaking, to the same thing: the possibility of something to last over time, or to provide oneself with the elements that it needs to do so.
Economic sustainability
When we speak of economic sustainability, we refer to the possibility of a system of generating sufficient and equitable wealth to guarantee a model of life that satisfies the human needs without sacrificing future generations in the process, while at the same time allowing to strengthen production and consumption.
Social sustainability
For its part, social sustainability refers to the possibility of a system promoting a society of values positive, equitable and conscious, that is, with a good standard of living (beyond the economic): access to culture, to the human development, to the formation and expression of one's own talents and ideas, and that at the same time reproduces in future generations the values, precisely, of sustainability.
Environmental sustainability
In this case, sustainability refers to the responsibility of every human system towards the environment and natureIn other words, the promotion of a model that coexists harmoniously and efficiently with the planet, and that does not sacrifice its biological and geological wealth to satisfy fleeting human ambitions.
A sustainable society must necessarily be ecological, since ending the planet we live on, although it does not seem necessary to remember it, is not an option.
Principles of a sustainable society
A sustainable society, that is, a society whose model is capable of ensuring itself and its continuity in the weather, while satisfying the three fundamental axes of which we have already spoken, must also necessarily comply with these four beginning basic:
- It should promote a culture of peace and social justice. Given that the war And confrontations inevitably lead to instability, destruction and waste of resources, a sustainable society must invest in the protection of life and the cultural heritage, maximizing the education at all levels, political and social dialogue, and equal opportunities Between people.
- You must use your resources wisely. The constant contradictions between the economic development and the environmental preservation within industrial society they are a challenge to be solved for a sustainable society. This probably requires a more responsible management of available resources, a healthier and more conscious consumption model, and a commitment to limiting the human footprint on the environment, so that future generations do not receive a ruined world.
- It must guarantee the satisfaction of basic human needs. This is a point that cannot be left aside in any sustainable society, given that inequality, poverty, the marginalization of entire sectors of the population and other similar social ills, inevitably lead to sociocultural deterioration and class hatred, violence and economic asymmetry. An impoverished and deprived society, whose individuals compete violently with each other for resources, will hardly dedicate great efforts to preserving the environment, for example.
- It must be ascribed to a fair and democratic system. The freedoms political, social and cultural are an inalienable intangible asset of the humanity, and in that sense no dictatorship or tyranny could aspire to be sustainable. The democracy, in its many forms, as well as a healthy and participatory civil society, and a robust set of institutionsThey are guarantors of social peace and allow different social sectors to cooperate with each other, instead of competing, or to serve as a counterweight to each other.