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Sustainability Model As A Way Of Conceptualising Sustainability And Its Stability

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What is sustainability? There is a Native American proverb which says: ‘When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money’. Defining sustainability is a challenge itself, achieving it is even more arduous but what it is certain are the consequences of not acting sustainable. For too long the main goal of western countries has been profit, ignoring the long list of benefits deriving from acting sustainable. The sustainability topic offers a wide range of arguments to discuss but in this paper only few of them are reviewed. It will be firstly analysed the ‘three legged stool’ model as a way of conceptualising sustainability and its stability. Secondly the aim is to examine the benefits deriving from businesses’ sustainable behaviour according to the introduction of the ‘triple bottom line’ framework. Conclusions follow.

I. The sustainability model as a three-legged stool
Sustainability is frequently depicted as a stool with three legs; each leg represents one of the pillars of sustainability: economic development, social equity and environmental protection. In order to have a functioning stool all the legs must have the same length. There has to be balance between them to address sustainability, otherwise the stool would not be stable (Scottish Environment Protection Agency, 2003). This definition simply describes the model without specifically considering what each pillar

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