Sustainable development is a term that has come to define human and environmental interactions in the 21st century. Sustainable development is the promotion of developmental patterns that will enable current human generations to meet their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The most popular definition of the term was coined by the United Nations Commission on Environment and Development in 1987.

The report of the commission, Our Common Future, indicated that sustainable development was development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The concept embodies the consequences that the continued increase in human population and the uneven and inefficient use of natural resources have on the planet's ...