Sustainability is an economic, social, and ecological concept. It is intended to be a means of configuring civilization and human activity so that society and its members are able to meet their needs and express their greatest potential in the present, while preserving biodiversity and natural ecosystems, and planning and acting for the ability to maintain these ideals indefinitely. Sustainability affects every level of organization, from the local neighborhood to the entire globe. It is a sometimes controversial topic.

The modern concept of ecological sustainability goes back to the post-World War II period, when a utopian view of technology-driven economic growth gave way to a perception that the quality of the environment was linked closely to economic development. Interest grew sharply during the environmental movements of the 1960s, when popular books such as Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962) and The Population Bomb by Paul Ehrlich (1968) raised public awareness.

There are two related categories of thought on ecological sustainability. In 1968 the Club of Rome, a group of European economists and scientists, was formed. In 1972 they published Limits to Growth. Although discredited by many, it predicted dire consequences because the earth was using up its resources, and it advocated as one solution the abandonment of economic development. Groups sympathetic to the general premise that the world was growing too quickly and/or using up its resources formed, including the Worldwatch Institute in 1975. In a different category, other groups formed to focus less on population growth control and slowing economic development, and more on establishing environmental standards and enforcement.

Many people have pointed to various practices and philosophies in the world today as being inimical to [against] sustainability. For instance, critics of American society state that the philosophy of infinite economic growth and infinite growth in consumption are completely unsustainable and will cause great harm to human civilization in the future.

One of the critically important issues in sustainability is that of human overpopulation. A number of studies have suggested that the current population of the Earth, already over six billion, is too many people for our planet to support sustainably. A number of organizations are working to try to reduce population growth, but some fear that it may already be too late.

Critics of such efforts, on the other hand, fear that efforts to reduce population growth may lead to human rights violations such as involuntary sterilization and the abandoning of infants to die. Some human-rights watchers report that this is already taking place in China, as a result of its one child per family policy.

The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), which was given the Task Manager responsibility for reporting World Progress on implementing four Chapters of Agenda 21 (Land, Forests, Mountains, Sustainable Agriculture & Rural Development) by the United Nations, acknowleges:

Types of sustainability

We have come to recognize as a society that our resources are not limitless and that if we are to be sustained as a culture, we must find ways to live in harmony with nature --- that is to say, to define a sustainable ethic by which we live. Sustainability in its most elemental form is the ability of natural and cultural systems to maintain themselves over time. This requires us to think differently, to think of human civilization as an integral part of the natural world and that nature must be preserved and perpetuated if society is to sustain itself indefinitely.

Environmental Design Group has chosen to apply this sustainability ethic to its design practice and to adopt the concept of sustainability as its core philosophy. We have purposely chosen to assemble professional skills in the arts and sciences that specifically address new ways of thinking about design. Our intention is to inform and partner with our clients in applying sustainability principles to their projects.

We have adopted the following principles to guide our work:

1. Recognition of Context: We will better understand historical and cultural precedents and express them in the design. We will integrate social, ethical, economic and environmental principles in our projects. We will evaluate the impact of our projects on the larger community.

2. Treating Nature as a Model and Mentor: We will look to natural patterns on-site as a guide to appropriate development patterns. We will fit our projects into harmonious relationships with these patterns.

3. Treatment of Natural Systems as Interdependent and Interconnected: We will look to maintain and reconnect natural systems within and adjoining our projects.

4. Creating Projects of Long Term Value: We will seek to optimize project systems and integrate them with natural systems to promote their longevity. Materials selected for inclusion will be based on their lasting value and their minimal impact on natural systems beyond the project's boundaries. Design strategies will emphasize permanence and livability to support their continued use over time.

5. Elimination of Excess: We will employ designs that improve efficiency and reduce materials and energy usage during construction, operations, and in maintenance. We will minimize disturbance and reuse materials wherever possible.

6. Sharing Knowledge with Clients, Manufacturers and Colleagues: We will promote sustainability principles of site design with our working partners on projects. Our presentations to clients will seek to define the benefits of sustainability to their projects. We will work with manufacturers of materials and products we use to better achieve sustainability goals. We will share our knowledge with colleagues to promote wider acceptance of sustainability principles.

7. Reuse of Already Disturbed Areas: We will promote the reuse of disturbed sites as a way to protect undisturbed sites from development and to reinhabit and restore degraded landscapes. We will include restoration of all site systems - soil, water, vegetation and wildlife -- as an ordinary part of our projects. We will identify systems at risk and seek to restore their stability.