General Article Sustainability – what is it? Definition, principles and examples

Topic Selected: Environment and Sustainability Book Volume: 368
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What is sustainability? What does it mean? What are the principles and pillars behind sustainability? What examples of sustainability are there in technology, food, workplace, business or transportation areas? How does sustainability relate to demand and supply? Find the answers to these and further questions right below.

What is sustainability?

There is no universally agreed definition of sustainability. In fact, there are many different viewpoints on this concept and on how it can be achieved.

Etymologically, the word sustainability comes from sustainable + ity. And sustainable is, for instance, a composition of sustain + able. So if we start from the beginning, to <sustain> means ‘give support to’, ‘to hold up’, ‘to bear’ or to ‘keep up’.

What is sustainability, then? Sustainable is an adjective for something that is able to be sustained, i.e, something that is ‘bearable’ and ‘capable of being continued at a certain level’. In the end, sustainability can perhaps be seen as the pr...

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