About Sustainable Development

Industrial development has always been seen as the main culprit of environment degradation. For many years, industrial development and environment have been treated as two different issues that contradicting and hindering each other.

Sustainable development was first introduced in the 1970s and it has brought new perspective to solve the conflict between environment conservation and development for meeting the people's needs.

Sustainable development suggests that it is possible to progress economy, social and environmental goals simultaneously, to develop for the present human needs and to allow the future generations to do the same. This is made possible by achieving an equilibrium in the three elements of sustainable development i.e. economy, social and environment.

Source:IUCN. 2006. The Future of Sustainability: Re-thinking Environment and Development in the Twenty-first Century. Report of the IUCN Renowned Thinkers Meeting, 29-31 January, 2006


Sustainable Development in the environmental context emphasise on consumption of natural resources within the ability of the nature to replenish; and control the waste generation within the ability of the environment to absorb. That is to develop within the 'carrying capacity' of the ecosystem. In the manufacturing industry, this could be made possible by changing the traditional product development objectives and integrate the concept of sustainable consumption and production throughout the product lifecycle.