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Improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting eco-systems.

IUCN –The World Conservation Union, United Nations Environmental Programme, World Wide Fund for Nature; Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living

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

World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future

Sustainability is an economic state where the de-mands placed upon the environment by people and commerce can be met without reducing the capacity of the environment to provide for future generations.

Paul Hawken,The Ecology of Commerce
In our every deliberation, we must consider the im-pact of our decisions on the next seven generations.

Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy

The 4 E's of Sustainability:
Environmental protection
Social Equity
Education
Economic development

Burlington Legacy Project

Sustainability is another word for justice, for what is just is sustainable and what is unjust is not.

Matthew Fox, theologian


A view of community as three concentric circles: the economy exists within society, and both the econ-omy and society exist within the environment.
Sustainable Measures
There are four primary types of capital that contribute to our wellbeing: natural capital, human capital, built capital, and social capital. When economic analyses, strategies, and policies understand the links and interdependencies that exist between these different types of capital, they are better able to meet the goals of sustainable human health and contentment.

Natural Capital refers to land and the many natural resources it contains, including ecological systems, mineral deposits, and other features of the natural world.

Human Capital includes both the physical labor of humans and the know-how stored in their brains.

Built Capital encompasses all the machines and other infra-structure like buildings, roads, and factories that compose the human economy.

Social (or Cultural) Capital includes the web of interpersonal connections, institutional arrangements, rules, and norms that facilitate individual human interactions.

Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, University of Vermont

UNESCO Bangkok (United Nations Educational, Scientific, & Cultural Organization)
Sustainability is not a problem, a condition, or a program; it’s a way of life, a relationship in which humanity and the rest of nature become, in the words of Thomas Berry, “mutually en-hancing presences to each other.” In this re-spect, sustainability resembles love, health, or peace. Pursued with deliberate imagination, it becomes a life practice for both individuals and communities.
John Tallmadge
By sustainability, we mean, "Improving quality of life—economically, socially, and environmentally—for all, now and for future generations."