Sustainability is among the more popular buzzwords in modern-day politics. Many still use it in reference to sustainable development and its various cousins of green development, green growth, sustainable agriculture and ecological economics. But does anyone actually know what sustainability really means?

Somehow, the objectives of sustainable economic and social development need to be achieved while preventing major environmental losses. How you practically do that is a question few would know how to answer. We explore this tricky question on the island of Borneo, where the three of us have now studied sustainability for a combined 50 years.

An island of many virtues