International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume V, Issue I, January 2018 | ISSN 2321–2705

A Sustainable Society: Its Meaning and Objectives

Abdul Hameed Siddiqui

 Assistant Professor, University Polytechnic (Civil Engineering Section), Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, 110025.

Abstract: Now a days there is a need to understand why Sustainable development is important, because it is now becoming more acceptable as a social goal. What a sustainable society might be like or how it might be created. However, remain elusive and vague. It is generally accepted that such a society must be widespread adoption of activities that are sustainable in economic, environmental and social terms. This paper explores the potential of social capital as a policy concept and the value of the concept for interpreting community dynamics, making strategies to enhance community relations and development and finally how we can build a more sustainable society.

Keywords: Development, Sustainable Society, Environment, Eco-system, Well-being.

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. The word sustainability is derived from the Latin word sustinere (tenere, to hold; sus, up). More than ten meanings for sustain, are in the dictionary the main ones being to “maintain”, “support” or “endure”. However, since the 1980s sustainability has been used more in the sense of human sustainability on planet earth and this has resulted in the most widely quoted definition of sustainability as a part of the concept sustainable development, that of the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations on March 20, 1987: “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” In ecology the word sustainability describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over the period of time.

Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of sustainable biological systems. For humans, sustainability is the potential for long-term maintenance of well being, which has ecological, economic, political and cultural dimensions. Sustainability requires the reconciliation of environmental, social equity and economic demands also referred to as the “three pillars” of sustainability.