The report of the World Commission on Environment and Development highlighted three fundamental components to sustainable development: environmental protection, economic growth and social equity. The concept of sustainable development focused attention on finding strategies to promote economic and social  advancement in ways that avoid environmental degradation, over-exploitation or pollution, and sidelined less productive debates about whether to prioritize development or the environment.

from Our Common Future, Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development.  United Nations, 1987

from "What is Sustainability," SustainVU, Vanderbilt University, 2012