SPECIAL INTEREST TOURISM-

THM 319
BY ÖZLEM YAMAK

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Definition of Sustainable Development-SD

• "Development that meets the needs of the

present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs."

• — from the World Commission on

Environment and Development’s (the
Brundtland Commission) report Our Common
Future (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987).
 Introduction to SD
• Sustainability is related to the quality of life in
a community -- whether the economic, social
and environmental systems that make up the
community are providing a healthy,
productive, meaningful life for all community
residents, present and future.
• How has the quality of life in your community
changed over the last 20 or 40 years?
 Questions???
 How has your community changed economically?
• Are there fewer or more good-paying jobs -- are people working more and earning
less or are most people living well?
• Is there more or less poverty and homelessness?
• Is it easier or harder for people to find homes that they can afford?
 How has your community changed socially
• Is there less or more crime?
• Are people less or more willing to volunteer?
• Are fewer or more people running for public office or working on community
boards?
 How has your community changed environmentally?
• Has air quality in the urban areas gotten better or worse?
• Are there more or fewer warnings about eating fish caught in local streams?
• Has the water quality gotten better or worse?
• These are traditional measures of communities. We
use numbers to show progress: "Unemployment
rose 0.4 % in January," or "The economy grew 2%
last year." However, the traditional numbers only
show changes in one part of the community without
showing the many links between the community's
economy, society and environment. It is as if a
community were made of three separate parts -- an
economic part, a social part and an environmental
part that do not overlap like the picture below:
 3 Seperate part of community:
• A view of community
as three separate,
unrelated parts: an
economic part, a social
part and an
environmental part.
• However, when society, economy and environment
are viewed as separate, unrelated parts of a
community, the community's problems are also
viewed as isolated issues. Economic development
councils try to create more jobs. Social needs are
addressed by health care services and housing
authorities. Environmental agencies try to prevent
and correct pollution problems. This piecemeal
approach can have a number of bad side-effects:
 Solutions and Side-effects:
• Solutions to one problem can make another problem worse.
Creating affordable housing is a good thing, but when that
housing is built in areas far from workplaces, the result is
increased traffic and the pollution that comes with it.
• Piecemeal solutions tend to create opposing groups. How often
have you heard the argument 'If the environmentalists win, the
economy will suffer,' and its opposing view 'If business has its
way, the environment will be destroyed.'
• Piecemeal solutions tend to focus on short-term benefits without
monitoring long-term results. The pesticide DDT seemed like a
good solution to insect pests at the time, but the long-term
results were devastating.
• Rather than a piecemeal approach, what we
need is a view of the community that takes
into account the links between the economy,
the environment and the society. The figure
below is frequently used to show the
connections:
• A view of community
that shows the links
among its three parts:
the economic part, the
social part and the
environmental part.
• Actions to improve conditions in a sustainable community
take these connections into account. The very questions
asked about issues in a 'sustainable' community include
references to these links. For example, the question 'Do the
jobs available match the skills of the available work force?'
looks at the link between economy and education.
Understanding the three parts and their links is key to
understanding sustainability, because sustainability is about
more than just quality of life. It is about understanding the
connections between and achieving balance among the
social, economic, and environmental pieces of a community.
A better view of sustainable community

• Rather than the three partially connected

circles shown on the previous page, a better
picture of a sustainable community is the
circles within circles shown next slight:
• A view of community as
three concentric circles:
the economy exists
within society, and both
the economy and
society exist within the
environment.
• As this figure illustrates, the economy exists entirely within
society, because all parts of the human economy require
interaction among people. However, society is much more
than just the economy. Friends and families, music and art,
religion and ethics are important elements of society, but
are not primarily based on exchanging goods and services.
• Society, in turn, exists entirely within the environment.
Our basic requirements -- air, food and water -- come from
the environment, as do the energy and raw materials for
housing, transportation and the products we depend on.
• Finally, the environment surrounds society. At an
earlier point in human history, the environment
largely determined the shape of society. Today the
opposite is true: human activity is reshaping the
environment at an ever-increasing rate. The parts
of the environment unaffected by human activity
are getting smaller all the time. However, because
people need food, water and air to survive,
society can never be larger than the environment.
• Sustainability requires managing all households --
individual, community, national, and global -- in ways that
ensure that our economy and society can continue to
exist without destroying the natural environment on
which we all depend. Sustainable communities
acknowledge that there are limits to the natural, social
and built systems upon which we depend. Key questions
asked in a sustainable community include: 'Are we using
this resource faster than it can be renewed' and 'Are we
enhancing the social and human capital upon which our
community depends?
• Sustainability is an issue for all communities, from small
rural towns that are losing the natural environment
upon which their jobs depend, to large metropolitan
areas where crime and poverty are decreasing the
quality of life. Indicators measure whether a community
is getting better or worse at providing all its members
with a productive, enjoyable life, both now and in the
future. This web site is about ways to measure and
strengthen a community's long-range economic,
environmental and social sustainability.
 Key Terms of SD
• This section provides explanations for the following words and
phrases that need to be understood in order to fully understand
sustainability. They are:
• Sustain
• Develop
• Community
• Economy
• Community Capital
• Carrying Capacity
• Equity
• In addition, many different groups and individuals have defined
sustainability in their own terms.
 Key term: Sustain

• Sustain: to continue without lessening, to nourish, to

allow to flourish.
• Notice that, in the context of sustainability, 'sustain' does
not mean that nothing ever changes. Nor does it mean
utopia, that nothing bad ever happens. Sustainability is
not about maintaining the status quo or reaching
perfection. A sustainable community seeks to maintain
and improve the economic, environmental and social
characteristics of an area so its members can continue to
lead healthy, productive, enjoyable lives there.
 Key term: Develop

• Develop: to improve or bring to a more advanced state.

• Notice that, in the context of sustainability, 'develop' does not mean continually getting
bigger. People start out as infants and grow until they become adults. They don't
continually get larger, but they do continue to develop: they go back to school, make
new friends, learn new skills, start a new hobby, or travel to new places. In the same
way, a sustainable community does not grow larger indefinitely. Sustainability does not
mean sustained growth. At some point, a sustainable community stops getting larger
but continues to change and improve, to develop in ways that enhance the quality of
life for all its inhabitants. Sustainable development improves the economy without
undermining the society or the environment. Sustainable development focuses on
improving our lives without continually increasing the amount of energy and material
goods that we consume. A sustainable community does not consume resources --
energy and raw materials -- faster than the natural systems they come from can
regenerate them. We are currently living unsustainable lives. If we are not careful how
we use and dispose of resources, our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren
will have a poorer, more polluted world to live in.
• A sustainable community is one where development is not
unlimited growth; rather it is the enhancement of what
already exists in the community. A sustainable community is
not stagnant; sustainability does not mean things never
change. On the contrary, it means always looking for ways to
improve a community by strengthening the links between its
economy, environment and society. A sustainable community
is also not a utopia. It is not a community where nothing ever
goes wrong. Sustainability does not mean that businesses
never fail or that people never go hungry or that pollution
never happens. Sustainable means that when problems arise,
we look for solutions that take into account all three parts of
the community instead of applying a quick fix in one area that
causes problems in another.
 Key term: Community

• Community: a group of people who live and interact within a

specific geographic area.
• In the context of sustainability, a 'community' can be a small rural
community, a large metropolitan region, a nation, or the entire
planet. What makes an area a community is shared interactions
among the people in the community. These interactions include:
• -Economic transactions: buying and selling goods and services to
each other.
• -Social relationships: being friends and neighbors, sharing,
cooperating, solving common problems together.
• -Environmental interdependence: relying on common resources
or the services of common ecosystems like forests, farmlands,
water supplies, and air supply.
 Key term: Economy

• Economy: the way that goods and services are

produced, distributed and consumed.
• The word economy comes from two Greek words
meaning 'house' and 'manage.' Economics is about how
we manage our households, both our individual
households and our collective community 'households.'
People need material goods to survive: food, water,
energy, a place to live, and clothes to wear. These goods
are all based on resources from the natural
environment in which we live. However, for many
people, 'economy' is a complex topic related to money.
• Newspaper, radio and TV reports reinforce the idea that
understanding the economy requires special training: 'The
economy grew at nearly a 6% annual rate in the first quarter,
fueled mainly by consumer spending; growth in real gross
domestic product may top 1% this month.' This sounds
impressive, but it leaves us wondering, 'How does an economy
grow? What is real gross domestic product? Does this affect me
and my family?' The technical jargon of economics obscures the
fact that most people actually do understand the basic meaning
of 'economy,' and also understand that the economy is tightly
connected to society and to the environment.
• So, in the context of sustainability, economics is about the
material goods and services that we use in our lives-from basic
necessities to the special 'extras' that make life more enjoyable.
 Key term: Community Capital

• Community Capital: the natural, human, social, and built capital

from which a community receives benefits and on which the
community relies for continued existence.

• The term 'capital' is most commonly used to refer to money and

material goods. However, in the context of sustainability,
communities have several different types of capital that need to
be considered -- natural, human, social, and built capital.
Together, these types of capital are referred to as community
capital. All four types of capital are necessary for communities to
function. All four types of capital need to be managed by a
community.
 All four types of capital need to be cared for, nurtured and improved over time.
Community capital can be thought of as a triangle, as illustrated by the picture below:
 Natural Capital

• At the base of the pyramid there are three blocks of

natural capital: natural resources, ecosystem
services, and the aesthetics or beauty of nature.
• Natural resources are all of those things that we take
out of nature and use: water, plants, animals, and
materials from the earth such as fossil fuels, metals
and minerals. All of these are things that we use up,
either as raw material or as part of a production
process. The end result is either a finished product,
waste material or both.
• Ecosystem services are natural processes that we rely on in some way. For
example, soil in an acre of farmland can produce food that we eat or
material for clothes that we wear. Wetlands filter water and soak up flood
waters. Estuaries provide habitat for shellfish and other food that we eat.
If we are careful not to overuse them, these natural processes will
provide us with services indefinitely. However, if we are not careful in
how we use them, we can degrade them. Farmed carelessly, soil on a
farm erodes or loses essential nutrients. Sediment in wetlands reduces
their ability to filter water. Fill a wetland and it no longer provides a buffer
against flooding. Runoff into coastal waters and over-harvesting can
degrade or deplete shellfish beds to the point that they are no longer
viable.
• The third block of natural capital is the aesthetics or beauty of nature.
Flowers in a window box, a view of a mountain range or seashore, a park
on a warm summer day, the song of a bird, and a sky full of stars on a
clear winter night are all parts of the beauty of nature. In addition to
contributing to our general quality of life, the beauty of nature is essential
to tourism and recreation, which form the basis of some communities'
economy.
 Social and Human Capital
• This level has two blocks -- people and connections:
• Human capital is each individual's personal skills and abilities,
physical and mental health, and education. Social capital is the
connections in a community -- the ways in which people interact
and relate to each other. The simplest connections are
connections to family, friends and neighbors. On a larger scale,
we form connections through community and volunteer
organizations, the ability of groups of people to form
governments to deal with common problems, and the ability of
people to form companies to create goods and services to satisfy
the needs of the community.
• The five blocks of natural capital and human and social capital
form the base of community capital. With these five blocks,
communities create the sixth block, built capital.
 Built Capital

• Built capital includes roads, heavy equipment,

factory buildings, houses, and apartment
buildings. It includes basic necessities like food
and clothing. It also includes things that,
although not strictly necessary, many people
in developed countries would be loath to do
without, like dishwashers, cars, telephones
and computers.
• A Sustainable Community
• A sustainable community takes good care of all its capital,
natural, human, and social in addition to its built capital,
in order to continually improve the quality of life of all its
inhabitants. To invest capital is to manage it in a way that
improves its value, so that the capital provides benefits
now and in the future. When you invest monetary capital,
you earn interest so the value of that capital grows. When
you invest in natural or social capital, its value also grows,
but in ways much harder to measure:
 A Sustainable Community

• A sustainable community takes good care of all its

capital, natural, human, and social in addition to its
built capital, in order to continually improve the
quality of life of all its inhabitants. To invest capital is
to manage it in a way that improves its value, so that
the capital provides benefits now and in the future.
When you invest monetary capital, you earn interest
so the value of that capital grows. When you invest
in natural or social capital, its value also grows, but
in ways much harder to measure:
• Educating children, providing preventive
health care, eating right, getting plenty of
exercise, training workers, and developing
peaceful relations with other nations are all
examples of investing in human and social
capital.
• Preserving prime farmlands and wetlands,
preventing pollution, using resources no faster
than they are renewed, and managing wastes
in ecologically sound ways are all examples of
investing in natural capital.
• When a child grows up hungry and uneducated or a
wetland is paved over, our community capital is degraded.
All around the world there are examples of communities
using up their natural and social capital, living off the
principal rather than living off the interest:
• The world's fisheries such as Georges Bank off the coast of
North America have been seriously depleted.
• In Brazil, the rain-forests are being cut down at an ever
increasing rate.
• In the U.S., aquifers of clean water are being drawn down
without hope of recharging them.
• There is a widening gap between the wealthy and the
poor.
• Crime and drug use are tearing apart the fabric of society.
• These are examples of unsustainable
communities, communities that are living off
the principal of their community capital
instead of investing that capital and living off
the interest. A sustainable community wisely
manages all its capital -- using and improving
the social, natural and built capital in ways
that allow that capital to continue to support
that community in the future. Living off the
interest of community capital is one way to
define the next term: carrying capacity.
 Key term: Carrying Capacity
• Carrying Capacity: the population that can be
supported indefinitely by its supporting systems.

• In ecological terms, the carrying capacity of an

ecosystem is the size of the population that can be
supported indefinitely upon the available resources
and services of that ecosystem. Living within the limits
of an ecosystem depends on three factors:
• the amount of resources available in the ecosystem,
• the size of the population, and
• the amount of resources each individual is consuming.
• A simple example of carrying capacity is the
number of people who could survive in a lifeboat
after a shipwreck. Their survival depends on how
much food and water they have, how much each
person eats and drinks each day, and how many
days they are afloat. If the lifeboat made it to an
island, how long the people survived would
depend upon the food and water supply on the
island and how wisely they used it. A small desert
island will support far fewer people than a large
continent with abundant water and good soil for
growing crops.
• In this example, food and water are the natural
capital of the island. Living within the carrying
capacity means using those supplies no faster
than they are replenished by the island's
environment: using the 'interest' income of the
natural capital. A community that is living off
the interest of its community capital is living
within the carrying capacity. A community that
is degrading or destroying the ecosystem on
which it depends is using up its community
capital and is living unsustainably.
• Equally important to community sustainability
is living within the carrying capacity of the
community's human, social and built capital.
Carrying capacity is much harder to measure
for these types of capital, but the basic
concept is the same -- are the different types
of capital being used up faster than they are
being replenished?
 For example:

• A community that allows its children to be poorly

educated, undernourished, and poorly housed is eroding
its human capital.
• A community that allows the quality of its social
interactions to decline through lack of trust, respect, and
tolerance is eroding its social capital.
• A community that allows its buildings, roads, parks, power
facilities, water facilities, and waste processing capability to
decay is eroding its built capital. Additionally, a community
that is creating built capital without considering the future
maintenance of that capital is setting itself up for eventual
decay.
• So, in the context of sustainability, carrying
capacity is the size of the population that can
be supported indefinitely upon the available
resources and services of supporting natural,
social, human, and built capital.
 Key term: Equity

• Equity (or inequity): In the context of

sustainability, the term equity has to do with
fairness -- whether all people have similar
rights, opportunities and access to all forms of
community capital.
• Inter-generational equity has to do with fairness between
current and future members of a community. It doesn't mean
that we neglect our current needs, but that we try to achieve a
reasonable balance between satisfying our needs now and
setting aside enough to provide for needs of the future. We
are currently living unsustainable lives. If we are not careful
how we use and dispose of resources, our children,
grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will have a poorer,
more polluted world to live in. Aiming for inter-generational
equity means we want to give equal consideration to our own
immediate needs, our own future needs, and our children's
and grandchildren's future needs.
• The term equity is also used in connection with the idea
that all people throughout the community, be it a town or
the entire world, have the same basic needs that must be
taken into consideration. This concept is often referred to
as intra-generational equity, meaning justice among the
present population. The preservation (or acquisition) of
basic human rights and the fulfillment of basic human
needs are the fundamental driving forces behind
economic transactions, social interactions, and resource
consumption. When people are operating under duress in
any of these areas, concern for immediate needs
overwhelms any consideration for long term needs,
thereby undermining the whole principle of planning for
the future. So, current or intra-generational inequity can
lead to future or inter-generational inequity.
• Understanding these seven definitions -- sustain,
develop, community, economy, community capital,
carrying capacity, and equity -- is the first step
toward understanding sustainability. The next step is
to understand sustainable development and
sustainable community. There are probably as many
different definitions of 'sustainable development'
and 'sustainable community' as there are people
and communities trying to define it. In the next
section of the web site we have gathered a number
of different definitions that have been proposed.
 Definitions of Sustainability

There may be as many definitions of sustainability

and sustainable development as there are groups
trying to define it. All the definitions have to do
with:
• Living within the limits
• Understanding the interconnections among
economy, society, and environment
• Equitable distribution of resources and
opportunities
• However, different ways of defining
sustainability are useful for different situations
and different purposes. For this reason,
various groups have created definitions of:
• Sustainability and sustainable development
• Sustainable community and society
• Sustainable business and production
• Sustainable agriculture