Sustainability Evaluation

Abstract

In this paper we argue that there is a difference between sustainability as a concept fundamentally related to sustainable development, therefore having a linear vision of progress toward the improvement of concrete situations, and sustained systems as a concept linked to environmental ecosystems where knowledge needs to be applied using a cyclic conception since the main purpose of human intervention in the environment must not be to alter or distort the natural systemic equilibrium but to maintain it – or at least not to disrupt it – in order to facilitate its recuperation after the intervention. Hence, in order to fittingly articulate the four basic components of sustainable development (social, economic, environmental, and political) and to correctly determine how to teach on the subject or how to implement and evaluate it in specific projects and plans, it is essential to begin by making this distinction, among other reasons, because the most important parameters proposed for the said tasks are the planetary boundaries, the change in paradigms, and worldview of indigenous peoples – especially in those countries with pluriethnical or plurinational populations or those having significant cultural diversity.

Diplomat and Phd in social sciences (Paris Sorbonne University). University professor, founder, and president of the International Relations and Peace Research Institute (IRIPAZ) and author of books on theory of international relations and several academic papers. As a career diplomat, Dr. Padilla has been the vice minister and posted as Guatemalan ambassador to the United Nations (Geneva and Vienna), the Netherlands, the Russian Federation, and Chile. Currently, he is Director of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and of the “Política Internacional” journal of the Academy.