Sustainable Development

Sustainable development “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

World Commission on Environment and Development
(Brundtland Commission), 1987

Fundamental to Sustainable Development is a common understanding that development is essential to satisfying human needs and improving quality of life, but that it must be based on the efficient and responsible use of natural, human, and economic resources. NRCan believes that the concept of sustainable development (SD) requires integrated decision-making approaches for the use of natural resources.

By continuing to advance the concept of sustainable development in its strategic and operational frameworks, NRCan is better positioned to provide integrated measures to simultaneously meet the following:

• Responsible development and use of natural resources;
• Economic growth and employment, fuelled by innovative ideas and practices;
• High quality of life, supported in part by Canada's wealth in natural resources;
• Social progress, which balances the needs of all Canadians;

Sustainable development is central to the mandate of NRCan and essential to the future of the natural resources sector. Today, millions of people, in over 650 Canadian communities from coast to coast, depend on the natural resource sectors for their livelihood.  In no other sector is this concept as meaningful or holds such promise for positive long-term outcomes.