Sustainable Development & Cleaner Production -How Do They Fit Together

Abstract

For thousands of years, man’s development based on renewable forms of materials and energy. Their use and conversion has always played an important role for the inhabitants of the planet, and apart from a period of negligible length — relative to evolutionary and historical time scales — the renewable sources have been the only ones accessible to mankind (Sorensen 1979). Food and (fire-) wood — the basic requirements for well-being, mobility and comfort — are converted and stored solar energy. When man began to harness animals, his demand for materials and energy increased rapidly. Starting with human settlements, the society developed specialisation and division of labour. Politicians, priests, artists, craftsmen and soldiers did not any more care for their food and energy by themselves. Trade demanded an infrastructure, and so goods and energy had to be provided commercially.