At the end of the last Millennium, when lofty visions were as ubiquitous as
talk of what mankind has accomplished and in what direction it is heading,
‘sustainable development’ or ‘sustainability’ became the theoretical basis
and an increasingly important societal norm for human development
worldwide. For some, sustainability is “the way to live in harmony with
the environment.” (Glasby 2002) The success of both terms—‘sustainability’
and ‘sustainable development’—stems from underlying reflections
on existential problems of mankind: increasing concern over exploitation
of natural resources and economic development at the expense of environmental
quality (cf Ward and Dubos 1972).
Today, the objective of sustainable development is acclaimed by almost
all international organizations, national governments, and also private enterprises.
This general consensus seems mainly to rest upon the vague substance
of the term ‘sustainability’ itself, which leaves much room for
interpretation (Voss 1997). For the definition of ‘sustainable development’
we generally refer to the 1987 Brundtland Report of the World
Commission on Environment and Developmen