Sustainability: knowing the past to imagine the future


Sustainability has become a major focus of the world’s media. Through the contribution provided by the determination and grit of young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, public opinion in many countries has turned its attention to this topic. Introduced ‘officially’ for the first time at the 1972 UN conference on the environment, its objective was only clearly defined years later in the so-called “Brundtland Report” of 1987, meaning that the subject already has significant history behind it.

In this issue, Soft&Green attempts to retrace this past by recalling some of the individuals, organisations and events that preceded, and in some way contributed to shaping, the very concept of sustainability. A sort of gallery of pioneers or a family tree of visionaries.

A way to honour those who conceived the idea of sustainability before sustainability existed, and also to help us understand that the idea behind all this comes from far away and… intends to go further still: towards the future. A better future for all.