THE MAIN PRINCIPLE OF SUSTAINABILITY IS THE COMMON GOOD |
THE MAIN PRINCIPLE OF SUSTAINABILITY IS THE COMMON GOOD |
“Sustainable development is the central challenge of our times. Our world is under strain. Poverty continues to plague communities and families. Climate change threatens livelihoods. Conflicts are raging. Inequalities are deepening. These crises will only worsen unless we change course. This is why world leaders are hard at work on a new development agenda – including a set of concrete sustainable development goals – to help guide humanity to safety and prosperity. It is critical that we understand how sustainable development can be achieved in practice, on the ground in all part of the world. […]. Together, we can build a future of shared prosperity and a life of dignity for all.” Ban Ki-moon, Eight Secretary General of the United Nations |
“Leadership always means taking the long view, inspired by our common needs and a clear sense on sharing the responsibility for taking the necessary action. In our time, it means thinking even farther ahead the leaders had to do one or two generations ago. Now we have the evidence to show us that our human activities, the footsteps of our own time, will affect negatively the lives and choices we leave for future generations in a potentially disastrous way, due to our own overstepping of planetary boundaries. We face a moral challenge to act and to act in time to protect the planet Earth and the livelihoods for new generations.” Gro Harlem Brundtland, Chair the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). |
"I propose that you, the business leaders gathered in Davos, and we, the United Nations, initiate a global compact of shared values and principles, which will give a human face to the global market. [...]. Specifically, I call on you -- individually through your firms, and collectively through your business associations -- to embrace, support and enact a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labour standards, and environmental practices. Why those three? In the first place, because they are all areas where you, as businessmen and women, can make a real difference. Secondly, they are areas in which universal values have already been defined by international agreements, including the Universal Declaration, the International Labour Organization's Declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work, and the Rio Declaration of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992. Finally, I choose these three areas because they are ones where I fear that, if we do not act, there may be a threat to the open global market, and especially to the multilateral trade regime." |
we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors.
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