Sustainable development. The concept of “sustainable development” was first introduced by Brundtland (1987)12, who defines development as “sustainable” if it “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Sustainable development implies minimising the use of exhaustible resources, or at least, ensuring that revenues obtained from them are used to create a constant flow of income across generations, and making an appropriate use of renewable resources.