A Little History on the Sustainability Movement.

Issues of sustainability have been addressed for hundreds of years and in many different forms. In 1854 Author Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Pond describes living simplistically with nature. In 1970 the U.S. government established the Environmental Protection Agency. However it wasn’t until 1987 that the world came together to recognize the need to address sustainable development and ultimately define what it is. Some of the first thoughts that sparked the interest pertained towards how development was degrading natural resources and what should be done to prevent these problems. The World Commission on Environment and Development performed a report titled, “Our Common Future” also known as the Brundtland Report. The report explored some of the most critical issues related to sustainability including; identification of common concern that threaten our future, the role or international economy, equality among nations, managing the shared oceans, and many more topics. Ultimately the Brundtland Report defined sustainable development as, “development that meets the needs of the present without comprising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs”.

*Information received from iisd.org and Winchip, S. (2011). Sustainable design for interior environments . (2nd ed.). Fairchild Books.