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• 1.0 Introduction
• 2.0 earthmodal sustainability
• 3.0 The Five Elements
  • 3.1 Worldviews
  • 3.2 Transformation
  • 3.3 Governance
  • 3.4 Mandates
  • 3.5 Dialogue
• 4.0 The Three Pillars
  • 4.1 Environment
  • 4.2 Economics
  • 4.3 Human Development
• 5.0 Ecosystems
• 6.0 Sustainability Devices
• 7.0 Citizen and Manager Proxy
• 8.0 Management Domain

 

4.0 The Three Pillars of Sustainability

Handbook of National Accounting: Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting - 2003; (new window, 5MB, pdf)
United Nations, European Commission , International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic, Co-operation and Development, World Bank; Series F, No.61, Rev.1 (ST/ESA/STAT/SER.F/61/Rev.1); 2003

1  The three-pillar approach to sustainable development

1.11. A widely held view of sustainable development is that it refers at once to economic, social and environmental needs. According to this view there must be no single focus (or object) of sustainability, but instead all of the economic, social and environmental systems must be simultaneously sustainable in and of themselves. Satisfying any one of these three sustainability "pillars" without also satisfying the others is deemed insufficient for the following reasons. First, each of the three pillars is independently crucial. Second, each of the three pillars is urgent and little time is available for debating which one should be addressed first; they must therefore be addressed simultaneously. Finally, the three pillars are interconnected. There is, therefore, a risk of unwittingly causing (or worsening) problems in one system while attempting to correct problems in another. The only sure way to avoid this is to integrate decisions such that effects in all three systems are considered before action is taken (Robinson and Tinker, 1998).

1.12. The three-pillar approach to sustainable development is wide-ranging and complex. The SEEA has a great deal to offer with regard to certain elements of the approach and less to offer for others. Clearly, the SEEA provides for the compilation of much information relevant to environmental and economic systems, but it offers relatively little for understanding social systems. As for the interactions between the three pillars, the SEEA has clearly a great deal to say about the interaction of environmental and economic systems (indeed, it is about little else), but offers less with respect to economic/social interaction or social/environmental interaction.