Glossary

Agenda 21
A non-binding, voluntarily implemented action program of the United Nations in support of sustainable development, produced as a result of the UN’s Conference on Environment and Development (the “Earth Summit”) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

American Sustainable Business Council
A Washington-based nonprofit membership organization for businesses seeking to become more sustainable and work toward creating a green economy.

Biosphere root of sustainability
A strain of thinking about sustainability that emphasizes the function within and interrelations among the world’s ecosystems.

Brundtland Commission
See World Commission on Environment and Development below.

Carrying capacity
The maximum population of a species that can survive indefinitely in a particular environment.

Ceres
An international non-governmental organization, based in Boston, that works to influence corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

Climate adaptation
Efforts of governments and organizations to adjust to predicted consequences of climate change, particularly rising sea levels, storm inundation, flooding, and drought.

Climate mitigation
Efforts by governments and organizations to prevent, and reduce the risks from, climate change and its consequences by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

Climate skepticism
A term used to describe the views of people who do not accept the scientific evidence on climate change, especially evidence that climate change is anthropogenic (produced by humans).

Common-pool resource problems
Depletion of natural resources shared by groups of individuals or governments, such as air and water, that results from “rational actors’” behaving independently and rationally according to each actor’s self-interest and is usually considered contrary to the best interests of the whole group.

Critique-of-technology root of sustainability
A strain of thinking about sustainability that directs attention away from the expectation that technology will solve unsustainability.

Ecodevelopment
Economic development that takes into account ecosystems, the biophysical environment, and responsible use of natural resources.

Eco-efficiency
A principle that, when practiced by businesses and corporations, leads to production of products and services with the smallest possible impacts on the environment.

Ecological carrying capacity
The maximum population of a species that can survive indefinitely in a particular environment.

Ecological footprint
A measurement of anthropogenic impact on the Earth defined as the amount of natural capital containing land that is required to support the lifestyles of individuals or groups of individuals.

Equity
An element of sustainability that emphasizes equal treatment in protection and improvement of the environment and in sharing the benefits of development.

Green economy
The portion of the economy of a country or portion of a country that is engaged in activities that have little negative impact on the environment or that produces goods or services in support of environmental improvement.

Local Agenda 21
A portion of the non-binding, voluntarily implemented action program of the United Nations in support of sustainable development focused on local governments and communities. It was produced as a result of the UN’s Conference on Environment and Development (the “Earth Summit”) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
An intergovernmental scientific body working under the auspices of the United Nations, established in 1988 by two UN organizations, the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme). Its participants include hundreds of scientists from around the world.

No growth/slow growth root of sustainability
A strain of thinking about sustainability that attributes unsustainability to rapid and unregulated economic and population growth and advocates the acceptance of slow growth or no growth in order to achieve sustainability.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
An international organization, headquartered in Paris, that provides services (focused mainly on issues of economic development) to its 34 member countries.

Our Common Future
The final report issued in 1987 by the United Nations’ World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission).

Resilience (resiliency)
A multi-dimensional concept describing the ability of people or communities of people to resist or adapt to stresses and usually used to define a path that allows communities to return to normal quickly after natural disasters, including major storms and environmental catastrophes.

Resource/environment root of sustainability
A way of thinking about sustainability that emphasizes the connection between depletion of natural resources and environmental quality as it influences the capacity of the Earth to support human populations.

Sustainable agriculture
A term applied to farming practices that seek to produce food with the smallest impact on the environment and the largest contribution to human nutrition with the least potential harmful effect on consumers. Also used to describe sustainable forest management.

Sustainable biological resource use
A strain of thinking about sustainability that emphasizes the need to maintain biological diversity within ecosystems.

Sustainable business
Corporations, practices, and products that purport to be sensitive to their impact on the environment.

Sustainable city
A subnational political jurisdiction that creates and implements policies and programs in an effort to promote energy efficiency, water conservation, protecting environmentally sensitive land, green building, and/or many other sustainability outcomes. Also includes jurisdictions that seek to balance environmental outcomes and economic growth.

Sustainable community
Any collection of people, from a neighborhood to an online group, whose participants work and behave in ways that are consistent with achieving sustainability.

Sustainable consumption
Human and organizational behavior that relies on consuming less, or on consuming goods and services whose production requires less energy or less fossilfuel-based energy.

Sustainable development
Economic development that accepts the limits imposed by depletion of natural resources and environmental degradation.

Sustainable economy
An economic system that produces human well-being without requiring depletion of natural resources or environmental degradation.

Sustainable energy
A term often used to describe renewable energy sources and methods of producing electricity (e.g., photovoltaic solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric) that are not dependent on fossil fuels.

Tragedy of the commons
An economic theory and set of experiences, described by Garrett Hardin, which states that individuals acting independently and rationally according to each individual’s self-interest produces results that are contrary to the best interests of the whole group by depleting some common resource, such as water or air.

Triple-bottom-line approach
A business (and government) approach to reporting environmental and social impacts along with financial results.

West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum
A nonprofit group representing small “green” businesses in Grand Rapids and Muskegon and in surrounding cities and towns.

World Business Council for Sustainable Development
An organization of member-company CEOs, headquartered in Geneva, that advocates creating a sustainable global business community.

World Commission on Environment and Development
The group, chaired by former Norwegian prime minister and former director general of the World Health Organization Gro Harlem Brundtland, that in 1987 produced Our Common Future, the first international report to focus on sustainability as a foundation for economic development.

World Economic Forum
An international non-governmental organization, with offices in the United States, Switzerland, China, and Japan, that is committed to promoting public-private partnerships in service to free-market economic growth and development.