サステナビリティが重要な、普遍的な価値であるというのは誰もが知っています。それでも、その歴史はおろか、この言葉の定義さえ説明に苦労するのではないでしょうか。サステナビリティとは何なのでしょうか。それは環境のことのみを指すのでしょうか。サステナビリティを十分に理解するためにはどのような科学が必要でしょうか。ビジネスにとってのサステナビリティとは何なのでしょうか。政府はどのように持続可能な未来のための計画を立てればよいのでしょうか。本書はこうした疑問の数々に取り組む、簡潔でわかりやすい入門書です。
今日、サステナビリティは、生態系モデルの開発、企業の社会的責任（CSR）の向上、環境・土地利用政策の策定、教育カリキュラムの編成、ガバナンスと民主主義の目標の再構築など、ありとあらゆる事象に関わっています。しかし、サステナビリティを取り上げる書籍の多くは、その一部分を論じることに終始しています。本書では、グローバルな開発、福祉、社会的公正、気候変動など、あらゆる側面から考察しています。また、収益性の高いビジネス、環境リスク、科学研究、地方自治体の日常業務などの文脈でサステナビリティを論じる章を設け、現代において最も重要な概念の一つを深く理解できるよう配慮しています。自然資源保護、農業、食品産業、環境倫理の分野での知見を盛り込み、サステナビリティとは何か、そしてなぜそれを正しく行うことが地球の未来にとって重要であるかを明確に説明します。
    

• Provides a thorough introduction to sustainability's history and its major stakeholders
• Walks the reader through key concepts that have guided policy and scholarship on sustainability
• Encompasses a diverse range of sustainability's applications, including climate change, profitable business models, social justice, and governance
• Grounded in systems thinking and written without technical jargon, emphasizes larger systems concepts over details
• Combines authors' areas of expertise to cover environmental ethics, agriculture, and economics of sustainability among other angles on the topic series

  
While politicians, entrepreneurs, and even school children could tell you that sustainability is an important and nearly universal value, many of them, and many of us, may struggle to define the term, let alone trace its history. What is sustainability? Is it always about the environment? What science do we need to fully grasp what it requires? What does sustainability mean for business? How can governments plan for a sustainable future?
  
This short, accessible book written in the signature question-and-answer format of the What Everyone Needs to Know® series tackles these and numerous other questions. Sustainability is a porous topic, which has been adapted and reshaped for developing ecological models, improving corporate responsibility, setting environmental and land-use policies, organizing educational curricula, and reimagining the goals of governance and democracy. Where other treatments of this topic tend to focus on just one application of sustainability, this primer encompasses everything from global development and welfare to social justice and climate change. With chapters that discuss sustainability in the contexts of profitable businesses, environmental risks, scientific research, and the day-to-day business of local government, it gives readers a deep understanding of one of the most essential concepts of our time.
  
Bringing to bear experience in natural resource conservation, agriculture, the food industry, and environmental ethics, authors Paul B. Thompson and Patricia E. Norris explain clearly what sustainability means, and why getting it right is so important for the future of our planet.