What is Sustainability?

While sustainability is very real and the signs of our positive growth are everywhere on the Ithaca College campus, sustainability is not a thing. Sustainability is instead a continuous improvement process with no finish line — not a what, but a how.

• "Sustainability is not a product but rather an ongoing process with no endpoint."
  - former Provost Peter Bardaglio
• "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
  - World Commission on Environment & Development: Our Common Future (1987)
• Chiefs are instructed that when they deliberate on the serious matters of the Council, they are to consider the impact of their decisions on the seventh generation into the future.
  - The Haudenosaunee Seventh Generation philosophy (comprised of the traditional leadership of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy)
• "Sustainable communities foster commitment to place, promote vitality, build resilience to stress, act as stewards, and forge connections beyond the community."
  - Northwest Policy Institute, Seattle, WA