Ecologically Sustainable Organization (ESO)

An ecologically sustainable organization (ESO) is an organization that uses environmental resources [Page 1009]at rates that are ecologically sustainable over the long term. In the most general sense, ecological sustainability is the capacity of an ecosystem to maintain itself in equilibrium over time. This concept has been applied, in turn, to economies and to organizations. The application of ecological sustainability to economic entities has its roots in the UN World Commission on Environment and Development’s 1987 Brundtland report, “Our Common Future,” which applied the concept to economic development. In what has become the conventional definition, the Brundtland report described sustainable development as that which “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Development, 1987, para. ...