Outline of sustainability

For a more comprehensive list, see the List of sustainability topics.

The human desire to live in harmony with nature and one-another was first proposed as an international endeavour in 1987 when sustainability (as sustainable development) was formally defined by the United Nations as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

The following list of topics is provided as an overview of and introduction to sustainability:

Essence of sustainability

Main articles: Sustainability and Sustainable development

The call for a sustainable relationship between humanity and planet Earth encompasses all human activity. It is a new discipline and there is a lively debate on conceptual issues of sustainability including its: definition, scope, relationship to other disciplines, most effective direction, and more. There is a general recognition that the way forward must include a cooperative effort between the environmental, social and economic spheres. The United Nations charter above entails both a formal discipline, sustainability science . to provide effective sustainability accounting translated into action through sustainability governance. Sustainability science explores the links between ecosystem change and human well-being using sustainability accounting as an assessment tool. Sustainability governance explores the way that different levels of human organization affect different levels of environmental, social and economic organization over both space and time.

Branches of sustainability

Sustainabiity is divided into two main branches: sustainability science and sustainability governance. Each of these branches is divided into a number of subfields:

Sub-fields of sustainability science Main article: Sustainability science Fields of human geography Focal subjects Technology See list of technologies Population Child Sustainability metrics See list of metrics Environmental impacts See list of impacts

Sub-fields of sustainability governance Main article: Sustainability governance Levels of human organisation Focal subjects Levels of human organisation See lists of levels of human organisation Political See lists of political levels of human organisation Economic sector See lists of economic sectors Organisation See lists of organisations Activity See list of activities

Levels of biological organisation	Focal subjects
[[]]	See lists of levels of human organisation
Levels of biological organisation	See lists of levels of biological organisation

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History of sustainability

Main article: History of topic uncapitalized

topic capitalized lists

Main article: List of topic uncapitalized topics