What is sustainability?

What is sustainability? Mike and I started this radio show because we realized that we were taking a lot for granted or assuming things that we didn't know we were assuming when we used the word "sustainability." People mean different things when they use it and depending on what they are talking about. It's loaded.

That's why we always ask our guests the question, "How do you define sustainability?" And you'll notice as a listener that people mean different things by it. Some think it doesn't really matter that much. Don Brown has called it "an orienting concept." Others have used quite specific references to reducing suffering, to providing for present and future generations of humans and others, or to bring about "the possibility that humans and other life can flourish on Earth forever." The iterations seem endless.

And we aren't the only ones who have decided to explore this issue. At Orion magazine, Eric Zencey has engaged the same line of thinking, noting 18 iterations of sustainability as word, concept, line of action and more.

For example:

[3] AN ACT, PROCESS, OR STATE of affairs can be said to be economically sustainable, ecologically sustainable, or socially sustainable. To these three some would add a fourth: culturally sustainable.

Read on at the link above. What do you think?