How Ecological Economics Supports Sustainable Futures: An Essay

This essay delves into the field of ecological economics, examining its crucial role in fostering sustainable environmental and social futures. It begins by outlining the historical context of environmental economics, tracing its evolution from the 1960s and highlighting the shift towards ecological economics as a transdisciplinary approach. The essay emphasizes the core principles of ecological economics, which aim to integrate natural systems, human values, and well-being to formulate effective sustainability policies. It explores the concept of environmental sustainability, stressing the importance of protecting natural capital and ensuring that current needs are met without compromising future generations. Furthermore, it discusses social sustainability, emphasizing the preservation of social capital through investments in societal structures, laws, and education. The essay highlights the significance of businesses in contributing to both environmental and social sustainability, including providing essential goods and services, creating jobs, and promoting social investments. It then explores the assumptions and concepts underlying ecological economics, such as the view of the economy as an open system embedded within the biosphere and the substitutability of different forms of capital. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of sustainable development for economic stability, the need to protect human, physical, and natural capital, and the role of technological developments, policies, and institutions in addressing ecological constraints and promoting equitable benefit sharing. It underscores the interdisciplinary nature of ecological economics and its strong focus on empirical testing of hypotheses and theories.

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Introduction
Environmental economics was developed in the 1960s as a result of the intensified
pollution levels and the increased awareness about the environment and its importance in the
existence of the human race among the people living in western countries. During this period,
economists became aware that for sustainability in economic growth, the economic system
needed to take into account the importance and uses of the environment and ensure that there
was no depletion of natural resources thus making sure that the environment was not overused.
In the 1970s the growth of environmental economics was initially within the neo-classical
structure which was mainly concerned with matters of usage and management of public goods,
market failure and inappropriate allocation of resources.
In this approach, however, very little concern has been shown on the relationship
between the economy and the environment. Some environmental economists who identified the
limitations of this approach led to the development of ecological economics. Being a
transdisciplinary field, ecological economics aims at improvement and expansion of the
economic theory for the integration of natural systems, human values and their well-being(Benn,
Edwards & Williams, 2018). The goal of ecological economics is to define and elaborate more
on complex relationships between humans and use that scientific understanding to formulate
policies that will effectively ensure that the world is ecologically sustainable (Ekins, 2016).
Environmental sustainability aims at ensuring that there is an improvement in human welfare by
making sure that natural capital such as land, air, water, minerals and so much more are
protected. A program or initiative can be defined to be environmentally safe if it ensures that the
needs of its population are attended to without having to compromise the welfare of future
generations. Under this pillar of sustainability, businesses are encouraged that they can still
achieve their goals without imposing any harm on the environment whether short-term or long-
term. Ecological sustainability requires that the allocation of economic resources should lead to
the stability of the economy–environment system as a whole.

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To create a sustainable society, there has to be a balance between the rate at which the
available resources are being used and the rate at which waste is being produced and reabsorbed
by the environment. The social aspect of sustainability aims at preserving social capital by
creating and investing in services that make up the structure of society. Social capital refers to
benefits obtained through human interactions and the basic structures of the society such as our
laws, traditions, educational systems, languages, and institutions. Social capital largely
contributes to the collective well-being of society. Social sustainability is concerned with an
improvement in social quality with concepts such as coherence, interdependence and morality
and the prominence of relationships amongst individual in the society (Schaltegger, Hansen, &
Lüdeke-Freund, 2017). It can be exhilarated and supported by laws, information and educating
people on equality and rights. The status of a company’s relationships with its stakeholders can
affect either directly or indirectly to the local communities, its customers, employees and even
the participants within the value chain (Ayres, Turton, & Casten, 2014). It is thus important for
businesses or rather companies to take charge of such since lack of social development,
including poverty and inequality, can negatively affect business growth and its operations.
Steps taken towards the achievement of social sustainability may lead to the realization of
new markets, attraction, and retention of business partners or be a start for the innovation of a
new product or service line (Costanza, 2015). Businesses can in different ways help the
government attain social sustainability by providing goods and services to help meet people's
basic needs, creating decent jobs, promoting public policies that support social sustainability and
making strategic social investments such as the construction of hospitals, schools and social
halls(Epstein, 2018). This will in the long run result to a more sustainable social future.
The ecological economists based their arguments on several assumptions and concepts.
First, ecological economics perceive the economy to be an open system embedded in the
biosphere’s carrying capacity which is defined as social metabolism. They assume that natural
capital is only very substitutable by other forms of capital such as the economic and social
capital(Reed, Van, Deakin, & Barlow, 2019).These theoretical assumptions which also include
the non-substitutability of physical capital are aligned with many ecological economists' views as
to physical capital is a complement and not a substitute to natural capital(Gold, 2016) . This

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explains that there is minimal possibility of substitutability between physical capital and natural
capital
The importance of sustainability, both environmental and social cannot be ignored.
Sustainable development is the key to stable growth of the economy. It does not only lead to the
development of the present economy but also that of the future. Exhaustion of the environment is
very dangerous because once destroyed, the environment cannot be replaced. Therefore, human
capital, physical capital and natural capital should be taken good care of and protected.
Sustainability promotes the rational use of natural resources (Sorrell, 2015). When it comes to
the business world, social sustainability helps in mitigating risks, unlocking new markets,
improving company-community relations and, attracting and retaining business partners and
customers.
Conclusion
The underlying argument in environmental sustainability is that all resources used in
manufacturing or production processes are naturally replaced in the time required for the running
of the processes. Ecological sustainability can only be achieved through an economic activity
that ensures that genuine human needs are met today without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their needs. Ecological constraints, however, limit the availability of natural
resources and eco-services for economic development which often results in environmental
degradation. The relationship between the human economy and natural capital is determined by
the laws of entropy and material balances leading to ecological limits. These ecological limits
and constraints can be solved through technological developments, relevant policies and
institutions thus creating room for development which ensures that there is equitable benefit
sharing among generations. Being inherently interdisciplinary, influenced by sciences, ecological
economics has a strong orientation towards empirical testing of hypotheses and theories.

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References
Ayres, R. U., Turton, H., & Casten, T. (2014). Energy efficiency, sustainability and economic
growth. Energy. Harvard: McGraw Hill.
Benn , S., Edwards , M., & Williams, T. (2018). Organizational change for corporate
sustainability. Harvard: Routledge.
Costanza, R. (2015). Ecological economics: the science and management of sustainability.
Routledge: CRS Press.
Ekins, P. (2016). Economic growth and environmental sustainability: the prospects for green
growth. Harvard: Harvard Printing Press.
Epstein, M. J. (2018). Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring
corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. New York City: New York
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Gold, M. V. (2016). Sustainable Agriculture: The Basics . Routledge: CRC Press.
Reed, J., Van, V. J., Deakin, E. L., & Barlow, J. (2019). Integrated landscape approaches to
managing social and environmental issues in the tropics: learning from the past to guide
the future. Global change biology, 34(3), 234-254.
Schaltegger, S., Hansen, E. G., & Lüdeke-Freund, F. (2017). Business models for sustainability:
Origins, present research, and future avenues. Harvard: Harvard Pritning Press.

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Sorrell, S. (2015). Energy, economic growth and environmental sustainability: Five propositions.
Sustainability, 6(2), 187-199.