Sustainable Development Principles

The principles included in this site contain elements which address the three major aspects of sustainable development (SD): environment, economy and community. Principles are linked to a full text, authorized version. To find the principles you want click on your choice of keyword, sector or provider. (see below).

Title	Ethic of sustainability
Sector	Civil society
Keyword	SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Citation	Euston, Stanley R. and William E. Gibson. "The ethic of sustainability." Earth Ethics 6, (Summer 1995): 5-7.
Provider	Euston, Stanley R. and William E. Gibson in Earth Ethics 6 (Summer 1995).
Principle Text	THE ETHIC OF SUSTAINABILITY By: Stanley R. Euston and William E. Gibson One-half century ago, the great eco-philosopher Aldo Leopold noted a fatal flaw in the conservation movement: "It defines no right or wrong, assigns no obligations, calls for no sacrifice, implies no change in the current philosophy of values." Instead, its most lofty value was enlightened self-interest. Today, much of the same can be said about the dialogue surrounding "sustainable development." Its watchwords – pursue enlightened self-interest within market mechanisms to achieve a sustainable future. Surely this is not enough! America desperately needs a restorative public philosophy that suggests new standards for what is constructive public discourse, what is responsible public action, and what is required of leadership into the 21st century. The emerging Public Philosophy of Sustainability is a call to ethical responsibility. It focuses directly on the values that are a precondition to a just and sustainable world. We do not confuse these values with mere individual preferences. They arise naturally and continuously from the fact of our participation in community and in nature. We each belong to a community; every self is a social self; and every human community depends on nature of sustenance. Nurtured by community and nature, we experience inescapable moral claims; other humans and other creatures command our respect and demand to be valued. All living things display the will to live. A universal morality proclaims a basic obligation of living in community; our individual drives to live and prosper must be qualified by the claims of others to do the same. We need and value others – both human and non-human – for our own well-being, but others have value and dignity quite apart from their importance to us. By virtue of being human, we live with a sense of our bonds to others. As this understanding deepens, it affirms a solidarity with others. We sense the meaning and obligation of justice in relationships, justice as fairness, enlarged by empathy and compassion. These moral obligations, informed both by religious experience and scientific understanding of the interrelatedness of life, are the ultimate grounding for the call to sustainability. We search for the meaning of these obligations in an extraordinary time of peril and possibility. Values for Sustainability In seeking a public philosophy of sustainability, we clearly affirm sustainability itself as a moral value. We interpret sustainability broadly to mean a condition in which natural systems and social systems survive and thrive together indefinitely. Sustainability represents a distinctively contemporary imperative, stemming from persistent, unfulfilled claims of solidarity and justice, a deepening understanding of the interrelatedness of life, and the stark realities of the destruction of nature. Today it becomes a basic human responsibility to ensure that both natural and human systems are sustained in a condition of health - for the sake of earth and people. As a central value and guideline for action in both public and private spheres, sustainability’s implications and requirements include: Concern for Future Generations This means caring not only for our own progeny, but listening now to the wider claims of the future, both human and non-human. It mandates a greater weighing of the future in all decision-making, and prudence and care to assure that the health and destiny of future generations are not jeopardized. Respect for Ecological Integrity Sustainability requires a respect for nature – its evolution, life support systems, and living beings - in all its intricacy, fecundity, diversity, beauty, and fragility. Respect follows when we humans not only recognize our dependence on nature, but take delight in it, and recognize nature’s intrinsic value. Responsible Earth-keeping This requires a stewardship in economic and social arrangements that consistently reflects respect and concern for sustainability. It means work and play that harmonize with nature, because we have been sobered and humbled by the devastating consequences of irresponsibly subjugating nature to human demands. Rededication to Justice In seeking the Public Philosophy of Sustainability, we affirm justice itself as a moral value inseparable from sustainability. Justice in society expands concern for immediate family and nearest neighbors to concern for the common good. It insists that all members of society be included in its "good" and that society’s institutions be structured accordingly. Faced with disparate or conflicting interests, a just society restrains injustices while valuing diversity and minimizing coercion, and strives for mutual accommodation and relative harmony. In our time we see the harsh reality of massive poverty coexisting with unprecedented affluence. In the context of the chasm between rich and poor, widened rather than narrowed by unsustainable development, justice as a moral value and normative guideline implies and requires the following: Full Participation - All are entitled to the opportunity for full participation in the life and decision-making of the community and society. Full participation is particularly critical in determining economic arrangements. None should be excluded from obtaining and enjoying the good things that become available from the careful application of labor and technology to nature’s provisions. Sufficiency of Sustenance - Sustainability requires a new standard of enough for all without excess and wastefulness. It demands that first the basic needs of all be met and additional goods shared with some measure of equity. This standard questions wasteful, conspicuous, and disproportionate affluence and points to mechanisms of sharing and redistribution. A just and sustainable society cannot tolerate the perpetuation of human misery. Traditional economic growth, enriching primarily those with more than enough, has failed to narrow the gap between rich and poor, and can no longer be trusted to overcome poverty. Sustainability requires an infusion of new values into the workings of the political economy. Respect for Community By community we mean caring and mutually enriching relationships among persons who share and celebrate ties of common interest and purpose, most often centered in a place. Community entails a balance between individual initiative and loyalty to a larger group, and also between loyalty to that group and the larger world. Good communities are essential to human fulfillment, yet they are eroded and demeaned by the individualism and mobility of modern, market-based societies. Harmonious community, embracing place as well as people, is a prime value in our vision of sustainability, and in turn is fostered by other sustainability values. Rededication to Civic Democracy and Civic Dialogue We affirm the value of a robust, participatory democracy as an intrinsic element of sustainability. The governance of sustainability, including that of the state and other institutions, requires an infusion of participation by many new stakeholders. Interests of the wider community, and proxies for the interests of nature and of future generations must gain access to decision-making. This will entail significant shifts of influence and power. At the core of reawakened civic democracy is civic dialogue, the lively mix of analyses and ideas, indignation and aspiration, criticism and creativity, directed toward forming, articulating, and enlarging a new national consensus. This consensus will clarify the present crisis and lift up the values and principles that can shape a common vision of sustainability and move us toward it. The difficult task of criticism is essential to this civic dialogue. It must question dysfunctional institutions. It must challenge deep-seated assumptions about earth-human relationships, economics, growth, consumerism, progress, and the good life. Such criticism gains cogency as it faces facts, avoids the defensiveness that leads to error, and remains open to unexpected insights. It becomes the necessary preliminary to discovering answers not previously apparent and fashioning constructive strategies for change.