Research Reports

Date:

July 2005

Title:

RR 53 - Sustainabilities: A systematic framework and comparative analysis

Type:

Research Reports

Author(s):

Cliff Hooker, Thomas Brinsmead

The World Commission on Environment and Development introduced the idea of sustainable development as that which “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. At the present time, sustainability theory, policy and practice present an apparently confusing, diverse range of claims and proposals, even while government agencies and business enterprises move to demonstrate their performance credentials as measured against one or another of these. However, a clear understanding of the relevant issues is enabled by taking a “systems perspective” on sustainability and characterising policy development as a systems design problem.

This report develops such a unified “systems perspective” from which to understand and comparatively evaluate three alternative conceptions of sustainability (impact, natural capital and adaptiveness), on the basis that the concept of sustainability is a tool that is used to assist human decision making. We will note that sustainability is concerned with preserving or enhancing (sustaining) something of basic value (‘the good’) over time that the purpose of having a concept of sustainability is to inform a policy framework to this end.

Sustainabilities: A systematic framework

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