Chapter 1: Sustainability in Real Estate: Context and Concepts

Global sustainability debate is routed in sustainable development (SD). The concept of SD traces back to the 1970s where its theoretical framework evolved after the publication ‘The Limits to Growth’ by the Club of Rome in 1972 (Berardi, 2013). In the same year, the UN Conference on Human Environment held in Stockholm served as the first major international gathering to discuss sustainability on a global scale: the platform created considerable momentum and a series of recommendations, which later led to the establishment of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the creation of numerous national environmental protection agencies (Berardi, 2013).

Berardi (2013) notes that Lester Brown in 1981 gave one of the first definitions of SD, which stressed the importance of considering future generations in Building a Sustainable Society albeit the UN World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) gave the most famous conceptualisation via the publication of a report in 1987 called ‘Our Common Future’, often referred to as the Brundtland Report, in recognition of the former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland's role as Chair of the WCED during that time. According to the Brundtland Report,