Report

“Sustainable development is something people talk about when they can’t think of anything else to say”, says Prof. Klaus Töpfer, former Head of the UN Environment Programme and sustainability pioneer, criticizing dilution of the term.

Since the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 when the United Nations agreed on “development which takes into account the needs of future generations”, the term ‘sustainable development’ has increasingly been used for the purposes of superficial green washing. Use of the term ‘sustainable’ has become so widespread that its everyday use has lost its real meaning. If a footballer plays a good game, the newspaper reports that it’s “sustainable proof that he’s a good candidate for the national team.”

Respecting nature makes good economic sense

On the positive side, sustainability is no longer a word used only in academic circles. Children in schools paint pictures about climate change. ‘LOHAS’ consumers (LOHAS is an acronym for Lifestyle Of Health And Sustainability) are a powerful new consumer group with the aim of promoting sustainability, for example by switching to green electricity. Investors are investing in ethical funds or in shares in companies who assume a high degree of social responsibility.

The concept has thus traveled full circle since the beginning of the 18th century when it was first realized that taking into account environmental and social issues makes good economic sense. At that time, the Saxon forests were being rapidly consumed by the sliver mining industry. But timber was vital for the construction of mine tunnels, smelting furnaces and houses and its scarcity threatened people’s livelihood and the economic well-being of the state. This is the reason why Carl von Carlowitz, the prince elector’s mine administrator wrote his fundamental work on forestry, calling for forests to be exploited in a “consistent, lasting and sustainable way, as man cannot act against nature.”