It is believed that SD might be a process or evolution. Until now, widely varying definitions of it have emerged, but they are basically similar to the one from 1987 in essence. For Paul Ekins, SD means maximizing the use of critical natural capital. This definition is close to those of Jänicke (1997), who defined it as long-term social and economic strategies to improve the conditions of environmental. It is hardly surprising that the concept of SD has three dimensions in it——society, environment and economy.

However, a wide spectrum of interpretation has shown in different article. The findings indicates that the identification of solution platforms and instruments are distinct, considering the role of nation-state, communities and business and industry. This has been also seen in the case of the mechanism of solutions by using market instrument, biocentric egalitarianism or rethinking of the social hierarchy. When starting to focus on the original definition from WCED, we can get ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. Although the key element of it is development, the definition probes: How can future generations meet their needs? Is it carried out individually or on a government level? What are the real needs our offspring have? On the one hand, these questions could be a guideline to make people aware of what they should do in the future. But on the other side, this contested concept might make people confused or even just become a slogan without any practical act.

According to Zuk and White (1990), deforestation, soil erosion, greenhouse gases, the depletion of the ozone layer, the loss of biological diversity and desertification are the most pressing global ecological issues. It seems possible that people only change their behaviors through the experience and the new information. It is this kind of new information, sustainable development, that could become a basis for addressing the environmental challenges. A wide range of innovations including social and technological ones with new tools or arrangements make this concept move forward. This can be seen in the case of the research on the problems in the Amazon and other rainforests which proposes advocating some initiatives like tree planting Internet and green campus with the instruction on SDs. Dincer and Rosen (1999) hold the view that the utilization of energy resources and should be maximized as efficiently as possible because sustainable energy resources supplies support SD. Therefore, he made contribution to global warming through the cogeneration of heat and electricity resources.

Cairns lists carbon emission and biological diversity as the major issues of SD. In this case, one remarkable change is the way how to use the funds from World bank. Before the WCED proposed the concept of SD, hydroelectric dams, coal mines and power company, these large infrastructure projects constitute the main fundings from the World Bank. But recently governments and some NGOs has realized the importance of ecology and took it consideration into future development in society. One possible implication of all these is that SD to some extent is a mission for numerous national institutions and international organizations. This frame helps them to address pressing environmental problems in decision making and management. Other types of instructions could include participation and the building of consensus. However, although its guidelines might be able to improve the situations, there are limits to how far the concept of SD can be taken as a result of its ambiguous meaning and the loss of substantive measures.

It is inevitable that many researchers consider it contested to understand the real meaning of SD because of the conceptual ambiguity. The main weakness with this theory is that different parties have different ideas about the direct object of sustainability. Employees tend to keep their work while ecologists focus to sustain the ecological environment. Therefore, different stakeholders will defend their own benefit which might cause some political decision-making problems like the tragedy of commons. Although the concept of SD conquers the policy discourses in several fields such as environment or policy development and space planning, some researchers ignore the relevance with policy due to its vagueness. And this case causes some real problems instead of address environmental issues. Some findings studied different `sustainable’ regeneration program adopted by cities like Duck and Readingöa and indicate sustainability as “a mule that can be hitched to many wagons, sometimes the mule is abused.” In general terms, this type of structure might delay policy actions and even create more destructive internal conflicts in some cases.

On the question of this contested meaning, some organizations and researchers has realized the key aspect of this ambiguous concept. The UN set 17 goals to make a guideline towards development on environmental, economic and social aspects which is call sustainable development goals (SDGs). With the help of the SGDs targets, governments and international organizations could have a detailed dashboard to achieve the sustainable development. Silvestre and Ţîrcă (2019) believes innovation development and adoption can address some environment and social challenges. The same result can be seen in (Seyfang and Smith, 2007)’s literature which explains that innovation and community action are important pillars of SD.

This article evaluates the concept of SD. Further exploration into its advantages and shortcomings to solve environmental issues and social problems. The new information and frame through SD actually affect some environment related issues but as consequence of the vagueness it also causes some abuse of policy. With detailed targets and innovation this concept could be easily understood and address more environment issues.

By Demi Zhang