In the 1970s, environmental groups sounded the alarm about the boom in economic activity and the ceaseless exploitation of natural resources, which too often were damaging to the environment. Their efforts to sensitize people to the ecological downside of development bore fruit, and gradually there emerged an environmental awareness in societies around the world.

This explains why, in the 1980s, the concept of sustainable development was associated with protecting the environment. For many people it is still a valid association.

But sustainable development is really a much broader concept, one that puts human beings at the heart of decision-making. It brings a new way of conceiving and carrying out development in which economic, social and environmental considerations are all taken into account.