- Formally called: Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development
- Released in 1987
- Gave concept of “sustainable development”
- The Brundtland Commission’s characterization of ‘sustainable development’ is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
- The prominence given to ‘needs’ reflects a concern to eradicate poverty and meet basic human needs, broadly understood.
- The concept of sustainable development focused attention on finding strategies to promote economic and social development in ways that avoided environmental degradation, over-exploitation or pollution, and side lined less productive debates about whether to prioritize development or the environment.