Journal
SUSTAINABILITY
Volume 3, Issue 10, Pages 1637-1661Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/su3101637
Keywords
sustainable development; sustainability; meaning; principles; history; governance
Funding
- Research Platform Climate Change and Development Cooperation KLIMOS
- Flemish Policy research centre on Sustainable Development
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At the turn of the millennium, the world's political leadership adopted sustainable development as a leading model for societal development. However, the terms sustainable development, sustainability and sustainable are sometimes over-and misused despite wide consensus about the concept's meaning among sustainability scholars and practitioners. While the concept allows various sustainability views to co-exist, random conceptualizations which do not respect the fundamental sustainability principles undermine the concept's objective to steer action. This lack of understanding of sustainability arguably inhibits its practical realization and a proper understanding of sustainability is urgently needed. In this paper we aim to contribute to a better understanding of sustainability by adopting a bird's eye perspective. We review the rich contemporary literature, with a specific focus on the terminology, genesis, fundamental principles, mainstream views of sustainability, and several governing aspects. Further, using the evolving body of sustainability literature, the paper provides arguments to combat common misconceptions of sustainability.
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