Sustainable development (SD) refers to the practice of meeting people’s needs without harming the natural environment, in an effort to achieve balance among environmental, economic, and social considerations.

Principal principles include eliminating poverty, hunger and poor health for all through quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation facilities, affordable and clean energy sources and reduced inequalities.

Ecological integrity

Ecological integrity refers to the ability of ecosystems to maintain their functions and provide services that benefit humans, making it a key aspect of sustainable development (SD). Unfortunately, due to their intrinsic complexity it can be challenging determining the impact of human activities on ecosystems as well as measuring them accurately due to natural systems’ inherent variability.

Research must focus on factors that maintain ecological integrity, especially biodiversity’s role. Education and awareness about SD should increase among all duty bearers (governments, private sector companies, civil society and the community). Policies which foster tolerance, cohesion and justice as cornerstones of human interaction are essential.

Some have criticized ecological integrity as being too subjective to be taken seriously as scientific doctrine; nonetheless, its inclusion should be part of public policy. Ecological integrity provides a framework for considering how people should live their economic lives without impacting environmental carrying capacity or ecological processes, while simultaneously emphasizing that all countries adopt production and consumption practices which fully coincide with nature’s ecological processes.

Economic growth

Sustainable development refers to meeting human needs while still protecting natural systems’ abilities to provide resources and services for future generations. This means conserving natural resources while preventing activities that alter ecosystems permanently. Sustainable development cannot be separated from its interconnections – economic growth depends on resilient ecosystems if growth is to continue; as part of this global community effort to reach Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and reduce poverty, everyone must join hands together.

Historically, economists believed that an economy could grow infinitely with new technologies being able to replace natural resources used for production (Meadows 1972). Since the recent global food crisis however, our natural resource supply has become severely limited and this has led many people to question traditional economic postulates and their sustainability. For an economy to truly be sustainable it must encompass three pillars – environmental, social and economical; with production, consumption patterns as well as proper physical development planning and land use being defined under each of them as components.

Socio-cultural integrity

As an overarching principle, sustainable development strives to meet the needs of current generations without jeopardizing future ones’ ability to meet theirs. This concept of intergenerational equity underlies environmental sustainability; therefore it is vital for businesses to adopt this philosophy so as to avoid creating long-term harm from short-term profits alone.

Social models of sustainability seek to address not only natural resources, but also politics, religion, economy and health systems in order to meet human needs in an ongoing fashion. This concept is sometimes known as sustainable development spheres; other terms like domains or aspects may also be applied (Gray 2010).

The SDGs, first unveiled at Rio+20 Earth Summit, represent a more holistic set of global objectives than their MDG counterparts. While more ambitious in terms of poverty reduction and food security goals, they also encompass country-specific goals.

Human rights

Human rights-based sustainable development is integral to meeting the objectives of the 2030 Agenda. Its main aim is to transition away from charity or profit motives toward one that empowers people to exercise all their rights as documented by 17 goals and 169 targets, which also requires revising economic and social policies with redistributive or rights-based approaches.

Paying its workers living wages not only complies with the law but also helps advance 11 Sustainable Development Goals.

Sustainable development was first introduced by the UN-backed World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987 with its Brundtland Report “Our Common Future”, wherein it defined sustainable development as development that meets present-day needs without jeopardizing future generations’ ability to meet their own requirements – an interpretation widely adopted today.