Empowering business to create a more sustainable future. The ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level: "the sustainability of economic growth". "Schemes to ensure the long term sustainabiity of the project."

Avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance: "The pursuit of global environmental sustainability." "The cological sustainability of the planet".

Accordingly, sustainable policies emphasize the future effect of any given policy or business practice on humans, ecosystems, and the wider economy. The concept often corresponds to the belief that without major changes to the way the planet is run, it will suffer irreparable damage.

The idea of sustainability is often broken down into three pillars: economic, environmental, and social—also known informally as profits, planet, and people.

In that breakdown, the concept of “economic sustainability” focuses on conserving the natural resources that provide physical inputs for economic production, including both renewable and exhaustible inputs.

The concept of “environmental sustainability” adds greater emphasis on the life support systems, such as the atmosphere or soil, that must be maintained for economic production or human life to even occur. In contrast, social sustainability focuses on the human effects of economic systems, and the category includes attempts to eradicate poverty and hunger, as well as to combat inequality.