Sustainability

For humans, sustainability is the potential for long-term maintenance of well- being which has multiple dimensions: ecologic, economic, political, and cultural. The three pillars of sustainability are the environment, society, and economy, but different arguments have been put forward in order to better describe the existing relations among them. Another core principle is the concept of ‘limit’, which refers to the finite characteristics of planet earth. Developing sustainably, therefore, implies a responsible approach to the limited resources our system is endowed with and translated in economic terms. This is often seen as being in contrast to the dominant liberal growth-based economic theories.