According to the World Bank (2001), meeting the needs of the future requires a responsible
balance of the social (issues that impact people directly and that either help or hinder the process of
improving the quality of life, such as equity, participation, empowerment, social mobility, and
cultural preservation), economic (the system that determines how the limited resources needed to
improve peoples' lives are distributed, such as services, household needs, industrial growth,
agricultural growth, and efficient use of labor), and environmental (the natural resources – both
renewable and non-renewable – that make up surroundings and help to sustain and better peoples’
lives, such as biodiversity, natural resources, carrying capacity, ecosystem integrity, and clean air
and water) objectives.