Understanding and use of the word
“sustainable” or “sustainability” endured a period
of accelerated evolution commencing in 1987 with
the publication of Our Common Future, which was
then followed by a more recent decline in coherency
to become an often-abused term simply meaning
“good” and sometimes used even without a
connection to the natural environment or ecological
health (Kiss). As discussed above, meanings for
this concept of sustainability have been evolving as
individual professions have attempted to develop
definitions that make sense in the context of their
respective areas of expertise and contribution.