Sustainable development means meeting today's needs and planning the country's growth without creating problems for future generations.
The concept of sustainable development has some inner contradictions from the start, due to its global-level challenge to balance economic growth with resource sustainability and a healthy environment. Specifically, though SD aims to find ways to harmonize economic development (the core goal of the dominant Western modernization model) with preservation of nature (resources and environment), in fact, western-style modernization (industrial development) depends on the destruction of nature. A second contradiction lies in SD's dual liberal/conservative character, considering that it supports progressive, liberal visions without assuming the possibility of fundamental changes in the market economy system
Sustainable development, however, has some common attributes at an abstract level in the varied conceptualizations defined by each different organization: (1) equity and fairness, (2) a future-oriented long-term view and (3) a holistic framework of thinking.