Everything you need to know about sustainability.

In a daily growing world, the need for sustainability study is increasing every day. It is a very broad discipline that connects civil engineering and environmental science with the newest technology. It becomes a necessity to save our world.

What is sustainability?

Sustainable development is always defined as” Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

Why we need sustainability?

Urban centers now consume more power than rural areas. Case studies say that we consume 40% more resources every year than we restore. Then sustainability is needed to balance between our need for technology and economic development and the need to save our environment. It is not only about the environment but also about improving health, society and humanity.

The pillars of sustainability

There are three pillars of sustainability:

• Economic Development

  Economic sustainability is the use of current resources in a way that both efficient and responsible. It is the development of economic wealth of countries, regions and communities for the well-being of their inhabitants.

• Social Development:

  “Social sustainability encompasses human rights, labor rights, and corporate governance. In common with environmental sustainability, social sustainability is the idea that future generations should have the same or greater access to social resources as the current generation (“inter-generational equity”), while there should also be equal access to social resources within the current generation (“intra-generational equity”). Social resources include ideas as broad as other cultures and basic human rights.” From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Source

• Environmental protection:

  All people are working on this pillar from individual to big companies. As it depends on protecting environment wither it by recycling, or reducing power consumption. Also, companies are supposed to prevent pollution and keep their own carbon emission low. This will drive us to a greener future.

• The main goals of sustainability:

  • Using integrated systems: As challenges in cities are correlated so they integrated systems to be dealt with. Like the integration between urban planning and transportation planning to make the best use of land. Also, the integration between remote sensing and urban planning field to gather more precise data.
  • To make all people participate in making world better place for current and coming generation.

• How to start a career in sustainability field:

  Sustainability is a growing field with many job opportunities. Although there are many fields included in sustainability, many professionals focus on environmental protection and social responsibility. People with a degree in engineering, business and public administration, social sciences, natural resource and conservation can start easily with government research institutions and non-profits as they highly are hiring sustainability researchers.