A Sustainable Energy Industry Cluster for Mesa Del Sol 2. Too often, people interpret this definition exclusively in biophysical terms, and thus concentrate on the conservation of physical resources, the protection of human health, the maintenance of stable ecosystems, and so on. We prefer a broader interpretation. Achieving sustainability entails balancing the environment, the economy and social equity. To endure on a sustained basis, a society needs fair access to good jobs and economic resources, and it must factor into its economic accounting the consumption and destruction of environmental resources-especially those that are irreplaceable.
Sustainability balances the environment, the economy and social equity.
There exists no hard definition of energy technologies that satisfy these criteria. Rather, the loose family of sustainable energy technologies gains and loses members over time and according to perspective. 2 Renewable energy sources replenish themselves naturally on human time scales. Renewable energy technologies convert into electricity or useful heat the energy available from sources that replenish themselves naturally on human time scales. There also exist related energy sources that rely for their renewal on the ongoing production of human waste, rather than on natural processes.