History of Sustainability

Sustainability is a term that is used very often nowadays but what does it mean and where does it come from? For something to be sustainable it must meet the human's needs without damaging the natural environment. The word sustainability comes from the German word Nachhaltigkeit, which translates to “sustained yield”. The first use of this word comes from a handbook of forestry that was published in 1713, this was published with the meaning to never harvest more than a forest can generate. In the mid-19th century, the translated term in English appeared. This term later included the protection of animals, fish plants, and other foods as well. However, the term “sustainability” was barely used before 1972. But when did it become an issue?

This all began after the industrial revolution that happened in the late 19th century. As factories began to rise, they left a noticeable print on the air and lands surrounding them. And since there were no laws to prevent the factories, their emissions quickly escalated. In 1989 a group of concerned citizens founded the first environmental group called “The Society for the Protection of Birds”. Quickly after a few others followed and they were the beginning of the global organisations we know today, a desire and hope to protect our planet earth.

In a lot of parts of the world, things started to change, an example is the National Parks in the United States. But at the time this was as far as most people were willing to go. It was until 1952 when smog killed 12.000 people in London, that people started to open their eyes. This led to one of the first environmental acts in the world.

The first real actions were taken in the 1970s, this happened after the UN had an environment summit. Because of this summit, many politicians became aware of problems like pollution. In 1980 people started to realise that climate change was a big environmental issue. Despite the fact that there were many acts, it did not seem to help and there was no proof that the efforts worked. Because of this, the funding was cut by half. In the 1990s the environment was back in the spotlight, the world was becoming much more concerned about the extreme weather and melting ice caps. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) then created a treaty in which they asked countries to limit their greenhouse gasses, over 30 countries joined.

With the start of the new millennium, environmental activism became even more popular, movies and documentaries were made to raise awareness for the extreme weather, climate change. Although many politicians denied the existence of climate change, the view of the planet of many people changed. Moreover, it became trendy for businesses to be sustainable and green. This is because there was a study involving over 60 countries, in which they found out that over half of all customers were willing to pay more for a product they were sustainable.

Mostly because of the fact that many consumers want to be and buy more sustainable, the green/sustainable industry began to flourish, organic foods, sustainable products, and products with clean energy became more popular over time.

In 2015, the Paris agreement became the first major global act to reduce emissions. Most of the countries in the world joined this agreement and agreed to do their part to reduce emissions. This agreement is set to stop global warming from increasing to 2 degrees Celsius before 2030 since this would damage the planet too much.

In 2015 the UN also launched the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), these goals are also to be realised before 2030. The agenda for the development is adopted by all UN Member States for peace prosperity for the people and planet. Although the act between the countries is incomplete, it is a promising sight to behold for the future of the planet. And with the younger generations that care more for living in a sustainable way, we can change the world for the better. We as individuals can have a lot of influence on how businesses operate, and on how the governments rule. This is why it is so important to know about the history, not just for education but also for inspiration. It is so important for each of us to do our part in turning this world into a better place. What we do makes a difference and we all have to decide for ourselves what kind of difference we want to make.

Sources used:

https://medium.com/in-kind/the-history-of-sustainability-52b681a7dfe0

https://theworldenergyfoundation.org/a-brief-history-of-sustainability/

https://sdgs.un.org/goals