Sustainability and Its Seven Sisters

ABSTRACT There are many concepts of sustainability. Robert Solow argued that sustainability would consist of conserving human well‐being over the “very long run”, through the interactions of the environment and other stocks in human decisions and activity. To appraise sustainability, he proposed the maximin criterion , the maximal well‐being of the least well‐off generation looking forward from the present. This essay interprets Solow's elucidation as extended by other economists. It explains the maximin criterion, compares it with some related concepts and then departs from the model's idealism to identify and discuss seven principles that are propitious to sustainability: The seven sisters of sustainability are balance, transacting, inequality, ignorance, unpredictability, productiveness and prudence.