What is sustainable development and what are the implications for the Shell Center for Sustainability?

The purpose of this note is to define what might be understood by the term “sustainable development” and what that understanding implies for the goals and strategies of the Shell Center for Sustainability. In brief, we shall argue that sustainable development is a process of improvement in living standards that can be sustained or continued for an indefinite time period. In this definition, living standards need to be interpreted broadly to include not only marketed goods and services but also valued items that typically do not have market prices such as environmental amenities, freedom from coercion, the rule of law and the quality of social interactions. Based on this definition, I propose that the central concern of the Shell Center should be to foster research at Rice University that is compatible with, or reinforces existing or potential strengths, and which identifies threats to sustainable development and how those threats might be eliminated.