Sustainability and economic growth: a theoretical framework and empirical demonstrations

Abstract

In the article fundamental principles of sustainable development are discussed first from general points of view. Sustainable development is seen as a late-modern idea of progress, i.e. an ethos for improvement of human partnership within the earth’s life support system in the current late-industrial times and the future. Secondly a macro-oriented conceptual framework of conditions necessary for advancement of ecological sustainability of the economy and society is formulated and analyzed. The theoretical framework presented is a set of logical identities, which define relationships between the total environmental stress (TES) and basic indicators of economic, technological and social development. The framework, called the Total Environmental Stress Approach of FFRC, provides necessary but not sufficient conditions for advancing ecological sustainability.