Lesson 34: Development Junior Cert CSPE Sustainability
Learning outcome 2.2
Students should be able to consider a variety of defi nitions of development and devise their own defi nition of sustainable development.
Exercise 35A Distinguishing between different types of sustainability Key Skills
Success criteria
I can identify the diff erent types of sustainability required for sustainable development.
Sustainability means making sure that the Earth can continue to provide food and water and allow everybody to have a high quality of life now and for future generations. In 1987, the Brundtland Report defi ned sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This means that the Earth’s limited resources need to be used carefully so that they are available for future generations.
There are three pillars of sustainability: social, environmental and economic. These are sometimes called people, planet and profi ts, which must be balanced to be sustainable.
1. Social sustainability is when communities, organisations and countries work well together. Socially unsustainable societies have high levels of poverty, poor access to healthcare or education and people have few rights.
2. Environmental sustainability is when the environment is protected and the resources are replaced at a similar rate to which they are being used. Environmentally unsustainable actions include not planting trees to replace those that have been cut down.
3. Economic sustainability is the ability of an economy to share wealth fairly in society and to do it in ways that are good for the environment.
Working in pairs, look at the factors on the following page and classify them as examples of social, environmental or economic sustainability.