Sustainability Definitions — An Analysis

Abstract

Every product or system that we consume or use affects our lives and the environment during its production, consumption and disposal. Emissions and wastes are generated which contaminate soil, water and air, the key life support systems on earth. If these support systems will stop functioning in their natural form, then survival and wellbeing of various living things will be endangered. Thus a product or a system should be conceived based on the principles of sustainability. There exist number of definitions on sustainability making it difficult to choose one for application. So in this paper we aim to discuss the definitions of sustainability from different contexts i.e., global and local, temporal and spatial, measurable and non-measurable, and clear and ambiguous. From the analysis we found most of the definitions are global, non-measurable and ambiguous. We need measurable and clear definitions of sustainability to be used in various situations.