Systems, Methods and Metrics

“Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

A good starting place Difficult to generate metrics

In a sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematic increasing:

◦ Concentrations of substances extracted from the Earth’s crust (e.g., heavy metals, fossil fuels)

◦ Concentrations of substances produced by society (e.g., dioxins, PCBs, and DDT)

◦ Degradation by physical means (e.g., over-harvesting forests, paving over critical wildlife habitat)

◦ And, in that society, people are not subject to conditions that systematically undermine their capacity to meet their needs