MARTIN H. WOLF
Director, Sustainability & Authenticity, Seventh Generation, INC., USA

What is “sustainability” in your vision?
An elegant definition of sustainability is that of the Brundtland Commission, the practice of meeting today’s needs without diminishing the ability to meet tomorrow’s needs. This suggests that the resources available today must also be available tomorrow.

Satisfy all people’s basic material needs and preserving the quality of the environment for future generations. Is this possible?
It is possible, and it is necessary! We evolve and thrive only to the extent our environment can support our evolution and prosperity. As we diminish our environment, we diminish our future.

When we think about sustainability we usually think only about the environment. What’s about people and society?
For purposes of our discussion, consider our environment the physical, chemical, and biological setting in which we exist, and the physical, chemical, and biological laws as defining how all the elements of our environment interact with each other. As we discussed, humanity is a subset of the environment, and it bears repeating that humanity can evolve and pr ...