8 2 Theoretical Foundations
2.1 Roots of Sustainable Development
2.1 Roots of Sustainable Development
The 1987 Brundtland Report is often seen as the hour of birth for sustainable de-
velopment. However, concerns were raised long before this document by environ-
mentalists who published their considerations regarding the impact of industrial
society on the environment.
The United States established its first Earth Day in 1970, as a result of increasedecological awareness led by Rachel Carson and others (Edwards 2005; Carson
1962). The purpose of Earth Day was to show society the consequences industrial
production has had on the environment. Over 20 million people throughout
the US celebrated Earth Day. This event triggered a political process in the US
government which ultimately led to the creation of laws such as the Clean Air
Act or the Clean Water Act (Edwards 2005). A United Nations Conference that
took place in Stockholm in 1972 is another milestone in the history of sustainable
development. Thanks to this event the American Earth Day was internationalized
and various environmental protection agencies were established as a result. More-
over, the United Nations Environmental Program was set up with the objective of
encouraging people to care for the environment and to improve their own lives
without jeopardizing the environment for future generations. In the following years
sustainable development gained broader attention which saw the creation of the
Declaration of State of Emergency in 1978 in the US by President Jimmy Carter,
followed by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, and the Compensation
and Liability Act of 1980, also known as Superfund (United States Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) 2002). Publications such as “How to save the World” by
Robert Allen in 1980 or “Building a Sustainable Society” by Lester Brown in 1981
captured public’s attention and further promoted the idea of a new relationship
between humanity and the environment. Shortly after, the United Nations created
the World Commission on Environmental and Development (WECD), led by the
former prime minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland who was responsible for
the widely acknowledged Brundtland Report “Our Common Future”. The report has
provided the most well-known definition of sustainable development describing it
as “development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on
Environment and Development 1987, p. 41). The Brundtland Report was also one
of the first official documents to mention the relationship and interaction between
ecology, the economy and social equity (World Commission on Environment and
Development 1987).
The next major step in bringing sustainable development to wider attention wasthe “Agenda 21: Earth’s Action Plan” enacted at the World Summit in 1992 in Rio