Despite the popular use of ‘sustainability’ as a buzzword in almost every aspect of our current economic development, we have yet to come clean with what it actually means and how to operationalize sustainability in real-life business and development activities. The term sustainable development (which is often used interchangeably with sustainability) was first coined in the Bruntland Report on Environment and Development, titled ‘Our Common Future’ (1987). Sustainable development is defined as “… development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. The report itself was made to bridge the existing gap between the rapid economic growth in the 1980s and rising environmental degradations and crises that corresponded to it.

Sustainable development aims to balance economic growth whilst addressing social inequality and environmental repercussions. This balance between ‘the people, profit and planet’ is often termed the triple bottom line of sustainability, in contrast to the single bottom line of economic development. However, while the concept seems promising, there has been a continuing debate about what specific approaches should be employed to achieve sustainability.

Over the past three decades since the release of Our Common Future, many endeavors have been made to operationalize sustainable development in many of its forms, among others through international conventions such as the Conventions on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992 and many of its derivatives, the Millennium Development Goals in the dawn of the 21^st century, the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment (MEA), the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the publication of the Planetary Boundaries concept¹, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Countries that are committed to address sustainability issues, including Indonesia, have also begun to integrate these principles into their policies, laws, and development plans. In Indonesia, for instance, Sustainable Development Goals and indicators are now an integral part of the country’s Medium Term Development Plans (RPJM), Spatial Plans (RTRW), and Strategic Environment Assessment (KLHS).   

In sector-specific contexts, various sustainability assessment instruments have also been developed to safeguard the implementation of many economic activities. For example, SAFA (Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture) is a common instrument to assess the sustainability of agriculture and food system when seen as an integrated whole. On a similar example, the tourism sector often refers to the sustainable tourism guidelines developed by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), in reference to the sustainability principles. The same holds true for almost every development sector, be it mining, manufacture, health, forestry, aquaculture, urban planning, and public governance.

In respect to the plethora of guidelines, instruments and indicators for sustainability that are readily available worldwide, a question comes to mind: how should one adopt and integrate sustainability principles to the specific business, development program, planning and policy? And how should these principles re-direct the aims and objectives of any private and public sector? In Ripta Jagabhumi Nusantara, we take pride in mainstreaming sustainability principles into every aspect of Indonesia’s economic development. Our service helps governments, companies, and civil society organizations to seamlessly adopt sustainability into their strategies, plans and business assessments. We firstly do this by helping our partners make clear of what sustainability is and means for their context and breaking down the steps need to be taken to operationalize sustainability principles in their line of work. For the public sector, this can range from identifying the extent to which sustainable development goals have been part of their key performance indicators (KPIs), to providing tools to monitor and evaluate the sustainability of government-based programs and projects. For the private sector, our services can range from supporting companies in complying with the government’s environmental standards, to designing a greener and more sustainable business model.

Looking back to ‘Our Common Future’ as published 35 years ago, the time has never been this right and urgent to revisit our steps and the extent that we have taken to build a better, more equitable and environmentally sound, business and development for our future generations. This should always be done in the right and most effective way possible. This is what we can do to help.            

¹ Rockström, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K., Persson, Å., Chapin III, F.S., Lambin, E., Lenton, T.M., Scheffer, M., Folke, C., Schellnhuber, H.J. and Nykvist, B., 2009. Planetary boundaries: exploring the safe operating space for humanity. Ecology and society, 14(2).