By definition sustainable development should meet human development goals while sustaining nature's resources and ecosystem services which we heavily rely on. For me however what it really means is to live, use and benefit from what the nature is giving us while at the same time equally respecting and taking care of this most powerful life-giving resource that has been long neglected and almost left the world discussion in disgrace with the world leaders blatantly denying the very existence of a problem, ignoring it at its core and therefore disrespecting the most impressive and fascinating of all forces that lies well beyond the power of humanity.
To understand however what sustainable development stands for in a global discourse on the word's future and growth, we need to learn more about its three major elements. These are:
Economic development
Broad-based inclusion
Environmental sustainability
All three are necessary if we want to speak about sustainable country, city etc. We will first take a closer look at the first aspect, namely economic development starting from where it means, where it comes from, what are its determinants and what it means for the humanity and the Earth in general. Sustainable development aims to answer the question how do we make world more prosperous, habitable, and equal without abusing or even destroying our natural resources, disrespecting human rights. It is about learning how to take while giving something in return. It is about eating cake and having cake in the best possible and realistic way.