ISM AND ISEG MBA - Développement durable

2. Sustainable development over the years
The subject of the environment has preoccupied many peoples' minds for a long time, not only
those of ecologists and scientists, but also of poets and philosophers. Ecologists have recently
turned their attention to industrial development and its environmental effect. Sustainable
development was first mooted in the 1960's, even though in those days pollution was considered
an inevitable consequence of economic development.
In 1987, Mrs Brundtland, the Norwegian Prime Minister, drafted the Brundtland Report, also
known as “Our Common Future”. She was the first to coin the phrase sustainable development,
when her report introduced this term to the U.N.O. The Brundtland Report provided a key
statement on sustainable development; it alerted the world to the urgent necessity to make
progress toward economic development that could be sustained without depleting natural
resources or harming the environment.
Originally the Brundtland Report was aimed at securing global equality, redistributing resources
to poorer nations and encouraging their economic growth. It suggested that equality, growth and
environmental conservation are simultaneously possible, and that each country must be capable
of simultaneously achieving its full economic potential whilst being allowed to enhance its
natural resources. However, achieving that equality and sustainable growth would require a
technological and social change.
The topic of sustainable development is not the unique reserve of governments; it concerns
equally the population, N.G.O's, local communities and companies.
During recent years the concept of sustainable development has broadened within Europe. Each
area endeavoured to adapt sustainable development to its own domain by creating new concepts
such as Green Energy, Sustainable equipment, Green Architecture, High Environmental Quality,
etc. But today's situation is not as seen in previous years; ecological trend in the business world
has evolved progressively.
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