Sustainability can be broadly defined as the ability of something to maintain itself. If a product or activity is sustainable, it can be reused, recycled, or repeated in some way because it has not exhausted all of the resources or energy required to create it. Simply put, sustainability is the capacity to endure or continue. This video provides a basic definition of sustainability. However, unless you have an inherent interest in sustainability, you probably haven’t thought much about what the term actually means. We often associate sustainability with things like recycling, using renewable energy sources like solar and wind power, and preserving natural spaces like rainforests and coral reefs. You may recognize that sustainability has to do with preserving or maintaining resources. Maybe you’ve used some product or service that was labeled as sustainable, or maybe you're aware of some campus or civic organization that focuses on sustainability. So what is Sustainability? You’ve probably heard the term sustainability in some context or another. ' The following video will further elaborate on this definition and will give a few examples on its meaning. Since the 1980s, sustainability as a term has been used more in the sense of human sustainability on planet Earth and this leads us to the concept of sustainable development which is defined by the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations (March 20, 1987) as follows: ' Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of sustainable biological systems. In ecology, the word sustainability characterizes the ability of biological systems to remain healthy, diverse, and productive over time. A particular society might experience a local growth and developmental success, which may be followed by crises that were either resolved, resulting in sustainability, or not resolved, leading to decline. In history of humankind, the concept of sustainability was connected to human-dominated ecological systems from the earliest civilizations to the present. Various disciplines may apply this term differently. In dictionaries, sustainability is typically described by many sources as a capability of a system to endure and maintain itself.

The term sustainability has a multidisciplinary use and meaning.

Define drawdown in sustainability