The Pillars of Sustainability and Their Importance
Have you ever heard of the three pillars of sustainability? Sustainability is often broken down into three interwoven categories: economic, environmental, and social sustainability. The idea behind the Pillars of Sustainability came about after realizing that the world’s environmental problems can’t be solved in isolation from other problems.
For example, when a country is going through an economic struggle, they will cut back on its environmental goals as a result. Or in nations where there is war and poverty, the environment greatly suffers.
Here’s a little more about the three pillars:
Economic sustainability includes production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. Seemingly normal issues such as taxation and corporate financing have a huge impact on how effectively we can follow and uphold these pillars.
A lot of this pillar relies on corporations and their ability to contribute to the protection of the environment through their own practices. Recycling products, incorporating renewable energy, and other sustainable practices are crucial aspects for the economic pillar.
This pillar focuses on the well-being of the environment; this includes air quality, pollution, deforestation, water quality and CO2 emissions. It also includes monitoring the impact that companies have on the environment and the efforts they are making to reduce any environmental effects they have on the planet.
Of course, companies rely on the extraction of natural resources to be successful, but it is still up to them to find viable ways to extract them in ways that are sustainable and cause the lowest possible impact to the environment.
Social sustainability refers to human health, resource security and education about the environment. It is important that governments and companies are involved in social sustainability without creating further division. A sustainable society is a well-cared for and healthy society.
Ways to generate social sustainability include focusing efforts on social well-being, rather than prioritizing mundane political issues, promote solidarity by fighting inequalities and discrimination, encouraging transparency and developing a social dialogue.
The three pillars have become more popularized amongst businesses, governments and organizations in their practices, but in order to see a considerable improvement, all the pillars need to be implemented equally. Regardless, society has to deal with a fairly complicated unity of these pillars, as it’s not an easy task to find out how all these pillars work together.
There are over seven billion people on the planet, and it is up to all of us to work together to create a safe and sustainable future. If we can come together and implement the three pillars of sustainability, then we can, without a doubt, accomplish great things.
