Commentary
The definition above appears to be the most widely accepted, largely because of the large number of prominent
people who participated in developing it. There are many other definitions of sustainable development.
The discussion of which definition is best has been distracting and in some ways counterproductive, because
sustainable development is a goal, not a thing. “Sustainable development” has become controversial
in some circles, with some free-market advocates, conspiracy theorists and resource utopians (“there will
always be enough for everyone”) claiming that it is a code phrase for global restrictions on individual and
company freedoms, using the premise that in a limited world someone must make decisions about who gets
what. Certainly, very few executives are interested in participating in discussions about sustainable development,
which inevitably turn into arguments about politics and society. The real problem with the phrase
is that it does not include or imply real actions in any particular dimension, so no one knows what to really do about it.