Page 374 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

358 6 From LCA to Sustainability Assessment

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

This statement addresses a worldwide responsibility of humans living today
to future generations. This ambitious goal was rapidly included into a political
discussion: 1992, the United Nations in Rio de Janeiro declared sustainability as
the guiding principle for the twenty-first century, which was confirmed 10 years
later at the succeeding conference in Johannesburg. The relation to the entire
life cycle of products, life cycle thinking, was already recognised as an important
principle. Beyond political declarations of intent the necessity for a quantification
and operationalisation of sustainability remains though an abuse, for example, of
product comparisons is to be avoided. This is addressed, for example, by a statement
of the Advisory Board for Sustainability in Germany concerning indicators for the
7)
national sustainability strategy : it is stressed that sustainability without quantified
goals threatens to evolve into an empty phrase. In addition, the Advisory Board’s
definition of sustainability emphasises the global claim:

Sustainable development is the creation of economic and social development
by means of preservation of natural fundamentals of life and an achievement
of economic and social welfare for present and future generations – for us and
globally.

6.2
The Three Dimensions of Sustainability

The definitions of sustainability given in Section 6.1 are not directly useful for
the purpose of (mostly comparative) product assessments. The standard model,
which is also accepted by industry, is called the triple bottom line, an interpreta-
8)
tion of sustainability based on the three pillars of sustainability. It basically states
that for the achievement and, of course also, for the analysis of sustainability
of anthropogenic activities ecological, economic and social aspects have to be
considered.
This threefold interpretation is, however, not straightforward as it suggests that
all three ‘pillars’ are evenly weighted within the framework of sustainability and that
each ‘pillar’ can be developed independent of the others. Besides, their common
basis is unclear. Figure 6.1 therefore assigns the micro- and macro-economic per-
spective as well as the demand for inter-cultural participation and justice, provided
the natural resources of life are handled carefully, to the technosphere, which is
embedded into the ecosphere.
There is no lack of effort in emphasising the role of the environment (or
ecosphere, nature), which is the basis of human survival.

7) Rat f¨ ur Nachhaltige Entwicklung (2008).
8) A similar popular formulation is 3P or PPP (People, Planet, Profit).