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Sustainable Development The Guardian of Future Generation

ByPranav Gupta

Symbiosis Law School, Noida Symbiosis International University, Pune

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There has been emergence over a period of time in Sustainable development. It mainly sets goals for future. It covers wide aspect. The paper focuses on improving the understanding of sustainable development and the various concepts related to sustainable development. The paper discusses that how human resource development function supports corporate sustainability strategy. It also focuses on the aspect of Good governance. The term good governance focuses through the international perspective as it explains how the public institutions conduct affairs and manage their resources. Sustainable development covers wide aspect such as it aims at human development, environment protection, poverty eradication and moreover aims to remove economic and social disparities. Sustainability could also be measured on the grounds of comprehensive wealth which includes manufactured, human and natural capital. Sustainable development addresses various social and economic issues. Sustainable development covers poverty and environment issues as both can be seen as related concepts. As the survival needs of the poor force them to degrade the already degraded environment. Thus, removal of poverty is the prerequisite for protection of environment. To ensure environmental sustainability the integration of agriculture with land and water management is essential. Moreover there should be sustainability of natural resource base. So recognition of all stakeholders and their role in protection should be recognised. All members of the society are considered as stakeholders of the sustainable development. Corporate social responsibility and citizenship were included so as to get the greater awareness about the concept of sustainable development. Strategies need to be invented to shift and break from the present unsustainable path and adopt the energy efficient way of life so there is economic growth. Many business organisations also cover the aspect of sustainable development by arising issues related to environmental and social concern. The concept of sustainable development basically focuses on society’s development.

Abstract

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The paper arises many questions related to issues covered under the concept of sustainable development.

Sustainable development mainly focuses on quality of life which is highly dependent upon use of natural

resources and thus these resources must be sustained. The present concept of sustainable global enterprise

will help to achieve three basic goals known as corporate responsibility, environmental protection and social

responsiveness. The concept of sustainable development also focuses on issues related to women as they

play a significant role in policy of sustainable development. Women issues are basically linked with

population and fertility. The development process worldwide has contributed to increase in economic and

social inequalities, environment degradation and has also led to growth in poverty.

The theme related to women has attracted many people worldwide. The paper traces the women’s impact on

policies and actions from national and international perspective. Sustainable development is aimed to be

achieved when there is reduction in societal demands or the gap between demand and supply is reduced.

Sustainable development establishes a strong relationship between humans and environment. As its main

focus is on sustaining environment too. There is a need of an hour to change demand of people on earth so

as to achieve the objectives of sustainable environment. The agenda 21 not only focuses on environmental

issues but greatly on the concept of sustainable development. Sustainable development could only be

achieved in this globalising world when it is guided by local consideration which basically lies in cultural

diversity and traditions. Thus there is a need to preserve diversity as it is important precondition for

sustainable development.

Therefore the paper covers all the issues related to sustainable development and also provides various ways

to achieve the objectives of sustainable development.

Keywords: Environment; Globalisation; Poverty; Stakeholders; Sustainable development

Introduction

Sustainable development in simple words can be described as meeting the needs of present

generation without compromising the needs of future generation. The process of sustainable

development includes various social and economic issues, environmental issues, human

development aspect, and globalisation and also includes poverty reduction measures. Thus,

sustainable development covers a wide aspect.

In 2006 European Union adopted Sustainable development strategies. It aimed to reduce

unsustainable consumption and focused on achieving more integrated methods for

production process. Sustainability goals should be clearly defined so that objectives of

sustainable development are effectively achieved.

Sustainable development aims to meet the needs of society in a way such that a better life

could be provided to each and every individual. Economic growth is essence of sustainable

development. But development only at the stake of increase in Gross domestic Product

(GDP) cannot be termed as true development. Sustainable development aims at preservation

of ecosystem by reducing air, water, and soil pollution.

The paper covers all the important issues which directly contribute to the process of

sustainable development. The problems related to environment are of main concern.

Sustainability could also be measured on the grounds of comprehensive wealth which

includes manufactured, human and natural capital. The main problem addressed by

sustainable development is of poverty. Poverty is mainly responsible towards unsustainable

development. Poverty contributes to inefficient use of resources. This is because of lack of

education and awareness among poor. Energy also is an essential human need. Thus,

sustainable development focuses on sustainable energy needs.

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All issues are inter- woven. One problem affects the other in way or the other. Such as

removal of poverty is the prerequisite for protection of environment. The survival needs of

poor force them to degrade the already degraded environment. Poverty and environment both

issues are of main concern for the sustainable development. Sustainable development is

possible in a country where population is stabilised and production is optimised. Education

also plays an important role in sustainable development. Human development is possible

only when there exists an educated society where all people are aware about the process of

development.

Thus, sustainable development covers all aspects and aims to find solutions to various issues

which hinder the process of development. The paper is divided into various sections which

discuss how various issues affect the process of sustainable development. Moreover,

sustainability requires enforcement of various policies and strategies and necessary

implementation should be followed for policies with wider responsibilities so as decisions

positively affect the process of development. The law alone cannot work. Society should also

contribute equally for the process of sustainable development. Therefore, sustainable

development promotes harmony for present as well as future generation.

POVERTY ALLEVIATION AND SUSTAINBLE DEVLOPMENT

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Poverty is the global problem that needs to be eradicated. The expansion of economic activities and opportunities and resource depletion has led to the problem of poverty. Being in the era of sustainable livelihood one must focus on poverty alleviation. Thus, the paper focuses on the ways to alleviate poverty and how sustainable development plays important role.

Poverty even measures the energy choices of poor households. Thus secure and improved energy services

are necessary for reduction of poverty and the development process. It is estimated that 70% of the women

among 1.5 billion populations living on a less than dollar are women (UNDP, 1995) [1]. Development

cannot occur if the poverty issue remains unaddressed. We can define poverty in various terms such as

economic and social. Thus poverty can be defined as being deprived of basic amenities of life such as food,

clothing and shelter. Industrialisation has led to increase in poverty as development must not be measured

only in terms of economic growth i.e. increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The demands for energy and poverty are closely related. Therefore, it is necessary to break the vicious circle

of energy poverty. It is observed that a poor urban family spends 20% of its income on fuels (Barnes, 1995)

[3].

Poverty also includes various environment issues. Poverty gives rise to poor work

environment as well. Taking South Africa into consideration, the country’s economic growth

has failed to address poverty related issues as well the inequalities in income. Thus, the

government of South Africa has increased grants to poorest 20% of households.

Approximately 18 million South Africans (45% of the population) live in poor households

that earn less than R352 adult per month, three of every five South African Children grow up

in poor Households(UNDP,2000) [7].

Now days the economic growth is more of capital intensive rather than labour intensive

which nowhere leads to benefit of poor sections of society. Poverty is considered to be one of

the main reasons for the devastation of environment and depletion of natural resources;

therefore if any strategies are adopted to alleviate poverty then it leads to positive impact on

sustainable development.

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Therefore various developing countries require a blend of mix operations which includes

social and economic growth aspects and further helps in alleviation of poverty, income

inequalities and promotion of various social development policies.

Poverty declined from 36 per cent in 1993-94 to 28 per cent in 2004-05, a 0.8 percentage

point reduction per annum compared to 1.6 per cent poverty reduction per annum in

neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Nepal (World Bank, 2007) [8].

Poverty itself relates to various other concepts such as environment, human rights, economic,

social and energy services. Thus, paper focuses on need to eradicate poverty. It can be

eradicated all together but efforts could be made to reduce poverty. Various policies and

strategies could be framed that focus only on poverty reduction aspect. So a proper legal

system can be adopted to take various steps towards poverty reduction.

SUSTAINABLE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Sustainable Human development can be defined as “ The preservation- and whenever

possible expansion-of the substantive freedom and capabilities of people today while

undertaking reasonable efforts to avoid risks that would seriously compromise the capability

of future generations to have similar-or greater-freedoms” (2011,HDR) [9].

Sustainable Human Development being related to human beings includes gender equality as an important aspect. Gender inequalities can never promote development.

Stakeholders are mainly responsible for the development process and the stake holders include society in itself. They basically influence and control the whole development process and makes decision which contribute directly to human development.

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, Sustainable human development focuses on society at large. Taking international aspect into consideration various factors have been responsible that have affected the human development. The continuing wars and attacks of Israel on Lebanon and various conflicts in Middle East have left great impact on the development process as it has affected social, economic, political aspect of various countries.

Development can only be achieved in an educated society. Thus, education system should be

made effective especially in developing countries so as to achieve the objectives of

sustainable human development. Communication process also plays an important role in

development process. Proper means of communications leads to spreading of information

easily and people become aware of various processes involved in development.

Sustainable human development also focuses on restraining those activities which

compromise the needs of future generations. Human development is directly concerned with

environment. Thus human development at the stake of environment and resource depletion is

nowhere just.

Thus Agenda 21 is an action plan of United Nation in relation to Sustainable Development. It

covers various aspects such as social and economic, resource management and includes

interest of various social groups of society and other members.

Sustainable human development mainly focuses on children as they present is the future.

Therefore, sustainable development starts with safe, healthy and well educated children.

Nowadays development is taking place at high cost such as widespread pollution, gender

inequalities, increasing gaps between rich and poor, industrialisation and social and

economic conflicts. All these are responsible for hindering the human development process.

There exists a relationship between economic growth and human development. Human

dimension is a part of economic growth. Economic growth is not only measured on basis of

GDP but it is also based on human growth as development of human is an important aspect

for future.

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Sustainable human development aims at favourable human development with minimum

damage to the environment. Thus human development includes various strategies and

policies which aim to benefit society at large.

Environment Impact Assessment plays a dual role i.e. it protects environment as well as

human race on planet. Thus, it is the duty of government to fulfil needs of human beings as

safe, healthy and proper working environment must be provided to them.

Enhancement of livelihood in rural areas should be the essence of human development

process.

Rural development is the first that should be taken towards the process of human

development. Proper facilities, basic amenities and education should be provided especially

to rural people for the process of development.

Since women are integral part of the society. Therefore, there participation is must and it

contributes to economic growth as well. The concept of sustainable development also

focuses on issues related to women as they play a significant role in policy of sustainable

development. Women issues are basically linked with population and fertility. Educated

women play an important role in human development process. Various strategies and policies

are being implemented worldwide for the development of women. Thus issues related to

women are of wide concern and attract various people.

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Therefore, Sustainable Human Development overall covers

four main aspects:

1) Social and Economic aspect

2) Environmental issues

3) Empowerment of women.

4) Educated Society

GOOD GOVERNANCE

Good governance refers to how a public institution conducts affairs and manages their

resources. Government’s failure could be easily assessed from the process of how successful

it had been in providing facilities to the public. Thus, good governance plays an important

role in the process of sustainable development. The essentials of good governance are

accountability, transparency, participation, responsiveness, quick decision making for the

needs of people. Good governance aims at fair legal system and also protects the rights of

individuals as being responsive to the needs of people. An informed and organised

participation is encouraged from both men and women under good governance. Good

governance and government go hand in hand as a government is called as ineffective unless

all the essentials of good governance are not adopted by it.

Good governance promotes development at large scale. Thus development further helps in

conservation of resources and environment. Thus, for social development and strong

democracy, good governance is must.

Transparency and accountability are must to follow good governance. Thus good governance

faces various challenges in country like Indian such as criminalisation and corruption. Thus,

government is duly accountable to its citizens. So for this purpose it needs to take various

steps to overcome these challenges.

Governance has various aspects such as:

1) Corporate Governance

2) International Governance

3) National Governance

4) Local Governance

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Decisions of different government bodies affect public affairs in one way or the other.

Efficiency being part of good governance covers protection of environment and sustainable

use of natural resources in itself. Media also plays a vital role in promoting the concept of

good governance. Thus, governance must be achieved in totality for sustainable

development.

Globalization

The instrument called globalization is not an ultramodern aspect, its roots were present even centuries ago. The first era of Globalization lasted from beginning of 18 th century to first decade of 19th century. With great colonizing power, Britain being the workshop of the world invested greatly in Latin America, Africa and Asia. But this Era of Globalization was arrested with the 1st world war and the greart depression from 1914 to 1945. After the 2nd World War the process of globalization was strongly supported by international economic policies. In particular a series of intense GATT rounds progressively dismantled the tariffs and the other protectionist obstacles to international trade and soon recovered the level of globalization already reached at the end of 19th century and then lost by the process of de- globalization of the first half of 20th century. Since the mid-1970s, the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates triggered a progressive acceleration of the collapse of national boundaries realizing a new international order based on the systematic globalization of economic markets. In the early 1990s the Uruguay rounds pushed forward the legal and institutional foundations of global free trade to be monitored and managed by the World Trade Organization that started its activity in 1995. In the late 1990s the range of freely exchangeable goods was greatly increased to include also most immaterial products such as software, copyrights, patents and insurance. WTO, with the help of the multilateral investment agreements negotiated by the OECD, managed to remove almost completely also the controls on the movements of capital, including direct foreign investment and financial flows, by imposing on each state the obligation to grant the same rights to domestic and foreign investors. The progressive extension and deepening of international free trade translated in rapidly growing global markets also by profiting of the new ICT infrastructures, material (the web of international transports, ICT hardware such as telephone lines, television channels, communication satellites, and so on) and immaterial (ICT software, internet, and so on).

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The structure of the Globalization topic is as follows , firstly background for the analysis of the properties of global markets, then recent process of globalization resulting new opportunities for sustainable development.

Environmental issue at Global Level

The international flowing of goods was boosted with higher flowing of money in form of capital and labor, which resulted the economically and financially more rigid and strong in comparison to other ethical principle like solidarity, equity, reciprocity, etc. the higher growth of power market brought some desirable consequences like efficiency of productivity and financial process, average per capita income, and opened the doors for global trade. We do not know much about the structural and welfare implications of the actual behaviour of real markets and therefore even less about the causal nexus between the globalization of real markets and pathological global phenomena such as those mentioned above.

However we know enough about the implications for real markets, we know that a perfectly competitive market performs the optimal allocation of resources given a certain initial distribution of resources and wealth among agents, their tastes, and a well-specified technology concerning the distribution of resources, income and wealth, so, the issues cannot be solved by unregulated markets and are not determined by them alone, In addition, a competitive market realizes the optimal allocation of resources among alternative uses only under very stringent assumptions underlying the abstract model of perfect competition, namely: completeness of markets, zero transaction costs, absence of serious uncertainty that is guaranteed only when the agents have perfect foresight or rational expectations, sufficient thickness and extension of markets that is assured in principle only when the number of traders tends to infinity, absence of externalities (including the environmental externalities), and stability of markets. the process of globalization pushes the real markets closer to the abstract model of perfect competition; therefore it improves the economic and financial efficiency of markets by enhancing their extension and thickness. However the allocation of resources of unregulated global markets cannot be considered optimal for a host of reasons:

The uncertainty intrinsic in the working of the markets raises serious problems. Markets are incomplete; in particular most future markets are missing and cannot be

easily established. What is worse, it can be proved that in principle markets cannot be

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, The modern process of globalization of the world economy has been and is in its essence a process of globalization of markets. The globalization of trade, transportation like steam ships, railways, cars, aircrafts, and so on affected the production and distribution of goods at global phase [15].

made complete [16] because future market are missing and expecting future in ab-sence of them is like breathing in vacuum.

Externalities are important because markets are incomplete and therefore cannot re-gister all the costs and benefits of economic decisions, and because the property rights on goods and resources are not always well defined, as is typical with many environ-mental resources such as the global commons (water, air, biodiversity, etc.)

Transaction costs are often quite sizeable.

We must conclude that for sound well-known reasons global markets cannot be left unregulated. Regulation is necessary for maintaining and perfecting competition, improving intertemporal allocation of resources (in particular the intergenerational distribution of resources), reducing uncertainty and mitigating its effects, internalizing externalities. In addition, as argued above, the distribution of resources, income, and wealth cannot be left to unregulated global markets because even perfectly competitive markets cannot assure their fairness.

New Economic and sustainability

The new phase of the globalization was not too different in comparison to the era of 2nd

world war, and it stated improving and spreading by improvement in transportation and

protectionist meansures. The worldwide web of economic exchanges and relations typical of

the traditional process of globalization has become more and more entrenched in, and ruled

by, the worldwide web of information transmitted and processed through Internet. We may

call this new way of organizing the economy ‘new economy [17].

The new economy may push real markets closer to the abstract model of perfect competition.

This may happen in particular because:

In principle, the new economy may push real markets closer to the abstract model of perfect

competition. This may happen in particular because:

It may reduce the information asymmetry between potential traders by offering.

It often reduces the transaction costs in particular by reducing the searching costs.

It may reduce the barriers to entry in the market for new enterprises.

It may reduce the existing scale and scope economies in the productive and dis-

tributive sectors.

It may reduce the average size of enterprises.

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It increases the power of the final user of goods and services by increasing their cus-

tomization and the transparency of their prices. The so-called ‘sovereignty of the con-

sumer.

Gives a great impulse to the dematerialization of the process of production and distri-

bution of goods.

Contributes to match, mainly through the progressive development of e-commerce.

We may conclude by observing that the spreading of the new economy is offering many

important opportunities for enhancing the sustainability of development.

The process of globalizing the capitals and socio- economical benefits which is called'' Glob-alization'' due to the lack of providing essential provisions for compensating its damages will lead to increasing cultural, economical, social, and political gap between the developed countries and the developing ones. The process of globalization in the conditions of struc-tural differences resulting from industrial gap. not only increases social inequalities and in-tensifies the gap of mass poverty both in local and international level, but also aggravates environmental challenges and the crisis inside the society and outside it , specially in adjacent countries of world system( as Waller Stein has said). The process of globalizing with respect to the economic, social, and cultural implications indicates of integ-rating local and national societies in international markets and unifying common cultural characteristics of all societies is interrelated with the new wave of reconstruction (Zahedi, 2004).

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The UN considers the concept of sustainable development as involving the below aspects: (a) Understanding the effects of the development by using non traditional economic charac-teristics. (b) Making effort for creating local development with respect to the certain limitations of natural resources. (c) Helping poor and impoverished people, those who have to destruct the environment (Lahsaee Zadeh, 2005). The following cases are some outputs of several international meet-ings on the environment and environmental legal commissions regarding essential aspects of the environment: achieving social justice and equality, supplying vital needs of human be-ings, the correlation between environment conservation and development, changing the qual-ity of the concept of growth, annihilating poverty, conserving natural resources of the world, trying to create ways of renewing resources, encouraging the increase of life standards, re-specting human values, technological evolutions, and changing the development to a parti-cipatory process.

Green Marketing

Green marketing refers to the process of selling products and/or services based on their

environmental benefits. Such a product or service may be environmentally friendly in itself

or produced and/or packaged in an environmentally friendly way.

"Green or Environmental Marketing consists of all activities designed to generate and

facilitate any exchanges intended to satisfy human needs or wants, such that the satisfaction

of these needs and wants occurs, with minimal detrimental impact on the natural

environment." [18]

Energy

No development is real that does not address poverty, as it is one of the world’s most

fundamental and urgent issues. Energy is a commodity that provides services and offers job

opportunities. It is a basic necessity, for survival and a fundamental input to economic and

social development. Poverty influences and determines energy choices of poor households.

Secure and improved energy services are a necessary condition for development and poverty

reduction, and yet energy security has not figured prominently in the development agenda.

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Lack of energy services is directly correlated with the major elements of poverty, including

inadequate healthcare, low education levels and limited employment opportunities. Gender

issues have come to the forefront in many development sectors including agriculture,

forestry and water but the energy sector has been slow to acknowledge the links between

gender equality, energy and development.

It is estimated that 70% of the 1.5 billion people living on less than a dollar a day are

women2 According to the World Bank (2001) women of all developing countries spend

between 2-9 hours a day collecting fuel and fodder, and performing cooking chores.

Lack of energy services is directly correlated with the major elements of poverty, including

inadequate healthcare, low education levels and limited employment opportunities. Energy is

a commodity that provides services and offers job opportunities as it is one of the most

essential inputs for sustaining people’s livelihoods. It is a basic necessity, for survival and a

fundamental input to economic and social development. Access to energy is fundamental for

fulfilling basic human needs, driving economic growth and fuelling human development.

Services such as electricity and/or energy are necessary for improved health, education and

agricultural productivity.

Energy poverty can be defined as the absence of sufficient choice in accessing adequate,

affordable, reliable, clean, high quality and safe energy to support economic and human

development(Reddy, 2000).5. It is the inability to cook with modern cooking fuels and the

lack of minimum electric lighting to read or for other household and productive activities.

Features of an unsustainable energy sector

India’s energy sector is full of contrasts. In this section, we bring out the salient features by

considering the achievements and the disturbing features of the past development.

Salient developments

The sector has undergone a number of changes over the past 50 years or so. A few

characteristic features are given below:

High demand growth: The primary energy supply in India grew at about 3.7% per year

on average between 1971 and 2006 (see Fig. 1).[19] 16

System expansion: To fuel economic growth, the energy sector has seen a large expan-

sion in terms of its capacity to deliver energy.

High self-reliance: As the country relies on its domestic sources to a large extent, its

dependence on imports is low in the overall primary energy supply.[20]

Intensification of energy use: A much faster growth in energy use compared to its pop-

ulation growth has improved energy use per capita over the past 35 years.

Improved access to energy.

Disturbing Features

Coal dominated system.

Rising pollution: Because of high dependence on dirty fuels, India’s carbon emis-

sion is fast rising. With about 1.25 billion tons of CO2 emission in 2006, India

emits more carbon than Japan, although its emission is still about one- fifth of that

of China and the USA (IEA, 2008b)

Government ownership

Skewed demand pattern

Large urban-rural divide in energy use.

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Distorted energy prices: India’s energy prices are not market-based but decided

through administrative processes. The regulated/ administrative prices tend to

charge more than the economic cost of supply to certain consumers while subsid-

ising others. This distorted pricing mechanism sends wrong signals to consumers

and distorts their consumption decision.

Energy shortages: Because of distorted pricing policies and inadequate investments

in supply infrastructure, the country faces a chronic problem of supply-demand

mismatch.[21]

Hence, India is at the crossroad of a major change in terms of economic develop-

ment. As the country tries to maintain a high economic growth path to address

poverty and other social issues, it is becoming clear that the country faces major

energy-related challenges. Following the western-style energy intensive path to de-

velopment is not an option for India in the long-run. Achieving a secure, affordable

and environmentally benign energy supply requires immediate attention. India has

to find its own road to energy sustainability and it requires an inclusive, open, co-

operative solution that will benefit the entire country in particular and the world in

general.

Agriculture

The Metaphor of Sustainable Agriculture: These abstract concepts are readily ap-

parent in current ecological, social, and economic reality. Agriculture, a living sys-

tem critical to the sustainability of humanity, provides a useful metaphor both of

economic entropy and for sustainable economic development. Tremendous gains in

productivity and economic efficiency have been achieved by removing agricultural

boundaries to facilitate industrial production methods. Farmers in capitalist coun-

tries have removed fences or other field boundaries to create larger fields, in order

to accommodate larger and more specialized machinery and equipment. The di-

verse crop and livestock enterprises that once characterized family farms have been

abandoned to achieve greater economic efficiency through large-scale specialized

production. Rural landscapes have tended toward inert uniformity, without form, 18

pattern, hierarchy, or differentiation. Economic control has been consolidated

among fewer farmers by removing the boundaries of ownership and identity that

once defined different farms within different communities. As farms became lar-

ger, farmers have ignored the economic boundaries of their local communities,

marketing their products and purchasing their production inputs wherever they can

realize the greatest profits. Farming communities have lost their economic, social,

and cultural identities. With no effective economic boundaries, communities have

lost their ability to be selective in their relationships – to protect themselves from

outside exploitation. Today, national economic boundaries are being removed in an

attempt to create a single global marketplace. Nations are being pressured to aban-

don their unique social or cultural values regarding stewardship of the land, food

equity, and food security – under the pretense of free trade – to achieve global eco-

nomic efficiency. In a single global free market, no nation would be able to protect

its farmland, its farmers, or its consumers from exploitation by the multinational

corporations that increasingly dominate global food production. Food would even-

tually be produced in those places of the world where nations were least able to

protect their land and farmers from corporate exploitation and sold to those people

of the world who are willing and able to pay the highest prices. With a single

global food market, no nation would have true food security. The wealthier nations

of the world would lose the farming sectors of their economies and the lands and

farmers of the poorer nations would be exploited to provide food for the wealthy.

And when the ecological and social resources of agriculture were depleted, there

would be no more food for anyone. Just as industrial agriculture provides a meta-

phor for the perils of neoclassical capitalism, sustainable agriculture provides a

metaphor for the promises of sustainable capitalism. Sustainable agriculture, being

a form of sustainable development, must be capable of meeting the needs of the

present without compromising the future. Thus, a sustainable agriculture must be

capable of maintaining its productivity and usefulness to society indefinitely. Sus-

tainable systems of farming must be ecologically sound, socially responsible, and

economically viable. A farm that

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degrades the productivity of the land or poisons the natural environment cannot

sustain its productivity. A farm that fails to meet the needs of a society -- not only

as consumers, but also as producers and citizens – will not be sustained by that so-

ciety. And, a farm that is not financially viable is not sustainable, no matter how

ecologically and socially sound it may seem to be in the short run. Sustainable agri-

culture embraces the historic philosophical principles of organic farming. Sir Al-

bert Howard, a pioneer of organics, began his book, An Agricultural Testament,

with the assertion, “The maintenance of the fertility of the soil is the first condition

of any permanent system of agriculture [22]. He contrasted the permanent agricul-

ture of the Orient with the agricultural decline that led to the fall of Rome. He con-

cluded, “The farmers of the West are repeating the mistakes made by Imperial

Rome.” J. I. Rodale, another prominent proponent of organic farming, defined or-

ganics in terms of intergenerational equity; he wrote, “The organiculturist farmer

must realize that in him is placed a sacred trust… As a patriotic duty, he assumes

an obligation to preserve the fertility of the soil, a precious heritage that he must

pass on, undefiled and even enriched, to subsequent generations [23].” Rudolph

Steiner, the founder of Biodynamic Farming defined an organic farm as a living

system, as an organism, whose health and productivity depended on healthy rela-

tionships among its ecological, social, economic, and spiritual dimensions. He

wrote, “A farm is healthy only as much as it becomes an organism in itself – an in-

dividualized, diverse ecosystem guided by the farmer, standing in living interaction

with the larger ecological, social, economic, and spiritual realities of which it is

part [24].” To Steiner, organic farming was about relationships, both social and

spiritual relationships, among the farm, farmer, food, and eater. Relationships on

true organic farms are mutually beneficial and

interdependent. Sustainable farmers rely on green plants to capture and store solar

energy and to regenerate the organic matter and natural productivity of the soil.

They use crop rotations, cover crops, intercropping, managed grazing, and integ-

rated crop and livestock systems to maintain the fertility of their soils. Sustainable

farmers express a sense of ethical and moral responsibility in their commitment to

preserve the productivity of their land – to leave it as good as or better than they 20

found it. Even though many industrial organic producers have adopted large- scale,

specialized, standardized systems to increase yields and reduce costs, sustainable

organic farmers have remained committed to diversity, interdependence, and hol-

ism in creating a permanent agriculture capable of supporting a permanent society.

Sustainable farmers realize the direct value of relationships with their land and with

people. They work in harmony with nature, not just to maintain productivity, but

also to respect their honored role as stewards of the land. They build personal rela-

tionships with their customers, not just to create a market, but also because they

value the friendships. Farmers and their customers find a renewed sense of com-

munity at farmers markets, community supported agricultural associations (CSAs),

community gardens, and other direct marketing venues. Sustainable farmers give

priority to their local community in marketing their products and purchasing

products and local consumers give priority to local farmers – they value com-

munity and society. Sustainable farming is their way of life, as well as their occu-

pation, because it gives purpose, meaning, and quality to their lives. This new ap-

proach to farming has many names, including organic, biodynamic, holistic, bio-

intensive, biological, ecological, and permaculture. Such farmers and their custom-

ers share a common commitment to creating a new food system that is capable of

permanence through renewal and regeneration. Smaller independent food pro-

cessors and retailers also are beginning to form alliances with local farmers and

community members to compete with the large, corporate agribusinesses that in-

creasingly dominate both national and global food markets. Over time, with sup-

portive changes in public priorities and policies, a global network of sustainable,

community-based food systems could replace the

current industrial, corporately controlled food system. As the sustainable food

movement continues to grow, farmers and consumers are joining social and polit-

ical movements that reflect their common concerns for food safety, nutrition, envir-

onmental quality, social justice, globalization, and other issues of sustainability.

For example, people are beginning to realize that concerns about economic global-

ization actually are concerns about the sustainability of local

21

economies, societies, and cultures. Most people know intuitively that removal of all

economic boundaries, in the name of free trade, will leave their natural resources,

including farmland, and their people, including farmers, vulnerable to exploitation

by giant global corporations over which they will then have no control. Sustainable

farmers are joining forces with other like-minded people who are concerned not

only about local and national food security, but also about the long run sustainabil-

ity of humanity. Sustainable agriculture provides a metaphor for a sustainable eco-

nomy and a sustainable human society. A sustainable economy ultimately must

rely on solar energy to offset the inevitable loss of energy to entropy. All natural

resources must be conserved, reused, and recycled to reduce energy loss to a min-

imum. Pollution must be minimized to reduce energy wasted on remediation. En-

ergy use must be reduced dramatically.

Ultimately, sustainability will require the use of solar energy – including wind,

water, and photovoltaic – to offset the inevitable energy loss to entropy. Solar en-

ergy is the most permanent of all known sources of energy. Some have advocated

using the biological solar energy collected by agriculture as a replacement for fossil

energy. However, the highest priority for agriculture must remain that of producing

biological energy for human consumption; humans can’t eat the sun or the wind or

the electricity generated by windmills or photovoltaic cells. Furthermore, a signi-

ficant portion of the energy generated by solar panels, wind, and water must be de-

voted to renewal and regeneration, rather than current consumption. Ultimately, all

types of economic development must operate like sustainable organic farms, har-

vesting and storing solar energy to sustain long run productivity by allocating

whatever energy is necessary to offset the energy lost to entropy.

WAYS OF ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

There is no doubt that a model of sustainable development is acceptable which

considers environmental, economic, political, social, and cultural relations as a

whole and arranges them in a synthetic and appropriate manner. It is a matter of

fact that the process of development is a long, teachable, and participatory process

which is the reflection of civic actions and synthetic policies of social planning that 22

requires the commitment of organizations, participation of civilians, and society-

oriented political systems. The central element of mentioned cases is training, or

better to say, environmental trainings that are conducted by interested organiza-

tions and individuals to inform environmentalist groups. These trainings make

groups and individuals aware of environment damages and outcomes. We can illus-

trate this process in the below triangle:

Having access to the objectives of sustainable development certainly requires dir-

ecting overall policies of societies' organizations and institutions, so if the interna-

tional and regional policies do not involve in this mechanism, accessing these ob-

jectives will rarely occur. Policies of theses organizations, whether formal or in-

formal, include the following matters: allocating specialized budgets, direct parti-

cipation in environment conservation, strategic planning focusing on environment

considerations, monitoring administration of policies inside and outside of the

country by international organizations, resource protection, training, adjusting

trade, changing the pattern of exploiting earth's resources, managing water re-

sources, public health and housing, trash management-specially dangerous trashes

-, population controlling, developing sustainable agriculture, and conserving the

mountains. Any civil aspect and appearance of development morality is not pos-

sible without public and specialized trainings. Training is the central element and

intermediate chain of organizations and masses. Training can take place individu-

ally, in groups or masses (the same, p.410). The process of training includes arran-

23

ging appropriate instructions and considering them in educational programs, creat-

ing informational networks in those institutions which are involved in opportune

transmission of information and knowledge regarding sustainable development to

policymakers and masses. In areas like Iran with widespread and increasing ecolo-

gic damages from one hand and the lower levels of training and public and special-

ized skills from the other hand, the element of training and reinforcing it seems to

be necessary. Such trainings should correspond with the level of environmental

awareness and dependency of individuals. And finally, the ultimate element in de-

velopment is public participation which is joined with ''modern development '' and

''democratic development''. Catching any sort of development without the presence

of well-informed and interested groups and individuals, and justifying objectives

for the existing groups of a certain social-biological environment is impossible. If

participation has an elitist and group approach, achieving objectives of develop-

ment is certainly impractical; so the only practical approach is mass, public, and

widespread participation in which individuals have understood the importance of

the case and get enough motivation for conserving available resources. This kind of

participation includes establishing NGOs- what is seen in the Western Europe and

the North America-, immediate participation in sustainable development, contribut-

ing national and international organizations involved in this matter, and finally

training through media or group discussions. Anyway, the final approach of gain-

ing this objective is the direct engagement of the individuals of an environment in

the ecologic development.

Hence, The concept of sustainable development is the intellectual, democratic,

reasonable, and human connection among three elements of human, resources (en-

vironment), and technology. Achieving the important and remarkable objectives of

sustainable development requires involving the well-informed and interested

groups in this process, enjoying all kinds of individual and group training, and ask-

ing help from international observer organizations such as: UN, FAO, WHO.

REFERENCES

24

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[15] It has been calculated by UNDP that the ratio between the income of the fifth of the world population

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[16] Vercelli (1997, 1998a) and Basili-Vercelli (1998)

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[17] We use this expression throughout the paper not in the sectional sense of set of activities directly

concerned with the supply of ICT hardware, software, and services, but in the systemic sense of the new

organisation of the economy as a whole in consequence of the systematic application of ICT. 12 See section

6 for a few important qualifications to this assertion.

[18] Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation and Sustainable Development Preeti Singh Lecturer, Professor Rohit Kushwaha, Director,Jhunjhunwala Business School,Faizabad.[19] This is based on IEA (2008a) and includes traditional energies.[20] Self reliance is measured as the ratio of domestic production to overall total primary energy supply.

[21] For example, Bhattacharyya (1994) indicates that in 1986, the energy deficiency in the power sector

was about 9-10%.

[22] A. Howard. An Agricultural Testament , Oxford, 1940.

[23] J. I. Rodale, The Organic Front , Emmaus, PA, 1949, Chapter 8

[24] R. Steiner, Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture . ed M. Gardner, Junction City, OR,

1993, original copyright, 1924.

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