Sustainability Concept: Not Only Environmental Aspect

Sobat Vini must be familiar with the word Sustainable Living or the concept of sustainability, right? However, what comes to your head when you hear the word Sustainable Living?

Definition of Sustainability

If you search for the keyword ‘Sustainable Living’ in an internet search engine, most articles will definitely refer you to things that refer to the environmental sector. Sustainable Living or a sustainable lifestyle is synonymous with a lifestyle that is applied to make the environment better. However, actually sustainable living does not only include things around the environment.

Sustainability is basically a cross-sectoral concept that involves various aspects, with three main aspects being environmental, social, and economic. Indeed, this concept originated from an idea about concern for the environment, but later developed into various aspects of human life. Not only dwelling on the balance of nature, but also on matters such as equality in education, welfare of life, and economic development.

The UN’s own definition of sustainability was coined in 1987 as “meeting the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. From this definition, it can be illustrated that the concept of sustainability is a concept that seeks to make a better life, both for current and future generations.

3 Main Aspects of the Concept of Sustainability

To make this better life, we depend not only on the safety of nature, but also on various other factors. That is why the concept of sustainability is ultimately cross-sectoral. The following is an explanation of the three main aspects of the concept of sustainability:

1. Environment

The environmental sector focuses on balancing each component of the environment such as the wise and responsible use of natural resources and biodiversity for future generations.

2. Social

The social sector is oriented towards efforts to create equal opportunities for every human being in order to have a good life. Examples include fighting for labor rights, easy access to health care, to child protection, and gender equality.

3. Economy

The economic sector refers to long-term economic development, where in the process humans do not have to sacrifice environmental and social aspects.

These three main aspects of sustainability will be mutually sustainable with each other. So, to truly achieve sustainable living, it is very important for us to keep these three aspects in mind. Not only implementing ways to maintain environmental balance, but also implementing efforts to uphold social equality and campaigning for a wise economic development process.