Definition of Sustainability
"Sustainable development is meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." --Brundtland report
"Sustainable development is concerned with the development of a society where the costs of development are not transferred to future generations, or at least an attempt is made to compensate for such costs." --D. W. Pearce
Sustainability is “turn[ing] resources into junk no faster than nature can turn junk back into resources.” --Steve Goldfinger
There are many definitions of environmental sustainability, but there are many things they all share. In general, sustainability refers to the idea of preserving natural resources, to the extent that future generations will have equally good or better resources available. As this report continues to develop, the major things to consider are what resources are being consumed more quickly than they can regrow and what nonrenewable resources are being used.
We know that Marlboro College is not, at the moment, completely environmentally sustainable, so we tried to measure a level of sustainability. For the most part, every resource consumption make us less sustainable, while every ecological service makes us more sustainable. Good policies (in recycling, education, purchasing, etc.) make us more sustainable, while bad policies make us less sustainable. Though we acknowledge that there are resources we use that this report does not track, these data give a rough numerical estimate of Marlboro College's environmental sustainability as measured by ecological footprint or some equivalent. This is complemented by our qualitative data, which discusses Marlboro College's less measurable environmental impacts.
