This blog is about about the environment, about inequality, about social change, and about innovation and development. These are big ideas and controversial. So, defining Sustainable Development seems like a good place to start.
It used to be that when I talked about Sustainable Development people would immediately think of agriculture and start talking about the farm ... not any more. Just a couple days ago our treasurer here in Australia used the phrase Sustainable Development to justify his anti-Keynesian economic strategy. In a recent speech he even threw in the words green and recycle when talking about selling off state owned assets. Politicians speak in talking points, they use trigger words and they hope that we will only hear what they say and ignore what they mean. My purpose here is to avoid mis-understanding. This is not just about subsistence, is it not just the new buzz word for political bean counters.
Sustainable Development is an emerging discipline with specific focus. It is a driving concept for much of the work of the United Nations over the past 40 years. There is no simple definition, but we can get a good start with Wikipedia which states that: "Sustainable Development is an organising principle for a finite planet." As an intellectual pursuit, sustainable development tries to make sense of the complex relationship between the world economy, the global society and the Earth's physical environment. Simply stated: Sustainable Development calls for socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable economic growth. It is here that the anti-Keynesian economists loose their grip on the term. It is the 'socially inclusive' and environmentally sustainable' part of the economic growth that brings them unstuck. Sustainable Development is, at its core, a statement of values, not a financial statement. We value people and we value the planet and we want to be able to continue economic development that respects those values.
When we talk about Sustainable Development we mean growth for all without endangering the Earth we share, without ignoring our need for bio-diversity. We mean protecting the rain forests, letting the rivers run, protecting the ocean and cleaning the air. When we talk about Sustainable Development we mean no one left behind, health care that is inclusive, education that is inclusive, employment that is inclusive. Sustainable Development does not understand discrimination on the bases of gender, ethnicity, religion or sexual preference. When we talk about Sustainable Development we are talking about values and responsibility. Underpinning these lofty notions is the mandate for corporations to take seriously their role in our complex future including jobs, wages and profits, and stewardship of the environment. There is a mandate for each of us to examine the place where we stand on this planet and the foot print that we leave.
