For these practices to be sustainable, they must not exhaust the Earth's natural resources, nor should they cause serious, or even irreversible harm to Earth systems. Rather they should ensure the maintenance of the life-support systems of the planet so that all living beings, human, plant and animal, may survive and thrive. Ecological sustainability is a notion that has evolved from the analysis and evaluation of economic development in both the industrial world and those developing countries that have used the development model based on industrialization. This model is considered to be unsustainable . In order to avoid the ideology of growthism a more appropriate language includes sustainable societies or a sustainable future.
Ecological sustainability is a key value goal in sustainability education .
Social justice Social justice is a value concept that ensures the respect of human rights and which measures the appropriateness of the norms that guide our relationships with one another as they are set by our social institutions. In a just society, these social institutions should ensure that the human rights of all are equally respected and opportunities to achieve what these rights allow are equally provided. A key value in peace education and sustainability education, social justice is a value concept that intends to reverse the effects of structural violence Intergenerational equity Intergenerational equity addresses the rights of future generations. It holds that the earth is a natural legacy which each generation receives in trust from its ancestors and holds in trust for its descendants. Intergenerational equity is an extension of social justice to citizens of the future having been included in early definitions of ecological sustainablity .