However at the same time we are concerned about the worldwide increase in environmental degradation, rapid growth of world population and persistent underdevelopment, poverty and widespread abuse of human rights in many areas of the world. On the one hand, affluence in a globalized economy is growing and all countries have a chance to participate actively in the world economy. On the other, this situation causes more international competition, which is often played out to the detriment of ecological and social potential, and which causes a loss of jobs, erosion of the tax basis and a lowering of ecological and social standards right before our doorstep. Sustainable development Ever since the World Conference on Environment and Development in Rio in 1992, the goal of sustainable development together with overcoming poverty and observing the human rights of every individual have been the most important guidelines for international development. Sustainable development means, according to the Brundtland Commission's definition, that the needs of the present generation are satisfied without compromising those of future generations.
Sustainable development has a social, an economic and an ecological dimension.
All three aspects have to be appropriately linked with one another in any attempt to implement sustainable development. There can be no sustainable development today without an intelligent turnaround, so that humanity exercises conscious reserve in using natural resources and causing environmental degradation. Sustainable development is a worldwide challenge and is related to the chances and risks on the path towards a closely networked Information and Knowledge Society. One working group of 16 students with different majors worked on the topic of sustainable development. The goal was to approach this extremely complex area from as many perspectives as possible in order to gradually develop a comprehensive understanding which could do justice to the many interrelationships among the different areas of sustainable development.