Three pillars of Sustainability: Social, Environmental and Economic

 

Three pillars of Sustainability: Social, Environmental and Economic

 In the literature relating to sustainability mainly three pillars of sustainability are identified. They are social, environmental and economic.  To put it differently, people represent the social pillar of sustainability, the planet represents the environmental pillar of sustainability and profit represents the economic pillar of sustainability. In order to understand the consequences of our actions in a better manner in terms of sustainability it is necessary to understand the interconnections and interactions which exist among environmental, social, and economic factors.

 

It is found that  these three pillars are graphically represented using Venn diagrams, concentric circles and literal pillars. In the Venn diagram the three circles intersect each other at some points. The intersecting portion is depicted as sustainability.  In the Venn diagram independent the circles are  there and the intersections indicate that somewhere they are overlapping each other.  It gives a message that even though three pillars are independent they are interconnected. In the concentric circle, economy is at the centre followed by social and environmental. Social, environmental and economic are depicted as three pillars of a house which is called sustainability.  The article “Three pillars of sustainability: in search of conceptual origins” written by Ben Purvis ,Yong Mao and  Darren Robinson published in  Sustainability Science (2019) gives adequate insights on how these pillars  evolved in the discourse of sustainability from a historical perspective.

These three pillars have been widely popularized, businesses, governments, and organizations since the 1980s to show their commitment to sustainability in their practices.  It is true that we cannot think about sustainability without considering these three pillars. The UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals adequately represent these pillars  of sustainability .

It is based on the presentation made by Dr. Siby K. Joseph, Director , IFPNP, Sevagram Ashram Pratishthan, Wardha, MS, India.