WHAT IS “SUSTAINABLE GROWTH”?
The Brundtland Report, known also as Our Common Future, was presented to the UN in 1987 and expounds sustainable development as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland, 1987). Sustainable development is targeted at finding pragmatic strategies to promote economic and social development in ways that avoid environmental degradation, over-exploitation and pollution. Failing to do so, society runs the risk of man-made disasters like London’s Great Smog of 1952 and Ukraine’s 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
The changing climate, alongside the growing frequency and intensity of global disasters, has alerted the international society to some very real threats. In 2015 the UN announced the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a global blueprint geared towards improving the liveability standard of cities and communities (United Nations, 2015). This is to be achieved through its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to corral member states to end poverty, be active vanguards of Mother Earth and to improve the lives and prospects of all individuals. These goals are interconnected, and are supported by 169 targets and indicators. The failure in achieving one goal impacts the progress of others (Morton, Pencheon, & Squires, 2017).
