The Challenge

We have all heard the news headlines describing a world becoming further divided and increasingly strained. From deforestation and climate change to disease and widespread poverty – environmental and social degradation comes in many forms.

These problems quickly become overwhelming and addressing one still leaves numerous others. But although the problems we face today are serious, they are simply symptoms of a greater systematic flaw in our society; a flaw that originates from violating a few basic sustainability principles.

On a global scale, society, the economy and the environment are inextricably linked. Because of this relationship, human well-being is largely dependent on the health of the environment. Unfortunately, our society is undermining the environment at an alarming rate, and consequently, are creating complex and interlinked problems known as sustainability challenges. As natural resources are being depleted, our demand for those resources is increasing, creating a strain that can no longer be ignored.

Our demand for natural resources has steadily risen over the past 30 years, and we continue to consume these resources faster than the earth can naturally regenerate. However, despite our increasing global demand, we are still unable to meet the basic human needs of more than a billion people.

In order to understand what is at the root of these challenges, we need to look at the big picture and determine what makes our current society unsustainable. To do this, we need to look at what it means to be sustainable and derive a concrete definition for our future work.

NEXT » A Shared Definition of Sustainability