While citing the 'environment' as a main thing to sustain both in quality and quantity, there are very few examples (mainly due to energy production for industrial consumption in the production of goods) where economic development has not taken some toll on the environment. If considering nothing other than the profound innovations in agriculture that have driven a global human population increase from 1 billion in 1804 to a current global population of 7.3 billion people only 210 years later. Within the span of 210 years (just a few generations), the basic material needs to sustain human life have increased at least seven-fold. The amount each individual consumes has also increased significantly since 1804. Regardless of how clear the ethical obligations to the environment may be, these "doubled-up" growth curves present the global population with a demand on resources that will become increasingly difficult to manage, even in the most optimistic of scenarios.
A variety of global surveys conducted over decades point to four values that rank as most significant, and therefore most worth protecting, to the broadest number of people. These values provide the foundation for most social aspirations, such as owning a successful business; it helps if the entrepreneur: is not in mortal danger on a daily basis; has the ability to go about their business without oppressive and unreasonable regulation; is able to grow their own wealth in an economy that further motivates innovation and competition; and is engaged in business practices that take into account the entire range of environmental costs of their practices, from origin-to-end.
- Peace. Without lasting security and lack of conflicts, there can be no long-term consistency in planning and implementation at most any level of government. Historically, during times of war or other forms of regional conflict, environmental protections are among the first issues to go unconsidered. Even going to the opposite extreme, environmental destruction has long been a weapon of famine and pestilence. From the heavy extraction of resources to the heavily increased consumption of fossil fuels, military conflicts cause significant environmental destruction, which often cause transient refugee populations, which cause sudden significant pressures on their new environments. As war is a life or death situation for those engaged in it, all resources are directed towards survival, with little thought beyond that.
- Freedom. An individual's expression of their free-will is the foundation of their capacity for self-determination. The fewer constraints individuals have in their self-expression and self-direction, the greater their degree of personal freedom. At the level of nations, we refer to this kind of freedom for self-determination as sovereignty. At an individual level, this has been referred to in a variety of terms, such as, the pursuit of happiness, the freedom of speech and the press, the right to a reasonable bail, and the right to not be given life-threatening burdens (such as in labor camps) in retribution.
- Development. Economies (and underlying economic philosophies) are judged by their capacity to provide a stable standard of living for the societies within which the economies are embedded. Development implies economies that continue to improve the standard of living for their societies over time. The ethical challenge comes in determining and agreeing upon what an improved 'standard of living' means to individuals. Wealth accumulation has been shown not to be the biggest indicator of happiness. In fact, Bhutan, one of the poorest countries in terms of per capita GDP, ranked among the highest in a wide variety of other qualitative developments. One thing that is certain, though, is that when the goals of development are put ahead of the goals of peace and freedom, then we begin to see encroachment on fundamental human rights.
- Environment. Historically, if the needs for peace, freedom, and development are not met, then the environment is typically not the primary issue of concern for organizations and individuals. Nevertheless, a poor environment creates poor health conditions for its inhabitants, which decreases lifespan, among many other challenges to long-term health. Ethics requires the consideration and protection of the non-economic qualities of the environment such as, beauty, cultural identity, biodiversity, and avoidance of species extinction. Further, the quality of the environment now strongly determines the quality of the environment in the future. Further, decreased environmental quality significantly decreases productivity of processes that depend on it, such as agriculture in regions of high amounts of ground-level ozone. While environmental conditions are often the last thing considered in growing an economy, they are one of the biggest determinants in the overall quality of life. Sustainability ethics requires both the protection of the environment for its own sake and to ensure that essential services continue to be provided.
According to the article, the most cited value to be sustained was life support systems. The article describes the value of 'life support systems' as relating to the environmental and ecological services that sustain human life. The desire to sustain, first and foremost, life support systems goes further than just fundamental ecosystem services like oxygen and clean water. Ensuring the sustainability of life support systems also includes the security of energy, health, and food systems, as well as the protection of energy supplies for essential services to vulnerable populations, such as hospitals, the young and elderly, and first responders. Moving from a centralized focus on economic values to a networked focus on ecosystem and human-health systems, the trend would suggest that a primary imperative ought to be to protect the essential needs for a quality life and for overcoming crises.