All societies face this economic problem. Paul Samuelson, the Nobel Prize winner for economics, is often credited with providing the first clear and simple explanation of the economic problem. He stated 3 that in order to solve the problem of scarcity; all societies, no matter how big or small, developed or not, must endeavor to answer three basic questions:What to produce? How to produce? For whom to produce?Answering these questions is not so simple and certainly there is no single common reply to that. The people should decide the best combination of goods and services to meet their needs. For example, how many resources should be allocated to consumer goods, and how many resources to capital goods, or how many resources should go to education or defense? They also have to decide the best combination of factors to create the desired output of goods and services. Finally, all societies need to decide who will get the output from the country's economic activity, and how much they will get. For example, who will get the fashion products, computers and cars which have been produced? This is often called the problem of distribution. It is another problem that various economic systems have yet failed to provide a virtuous solution.The appropriate answers to that question are somehow stipulated within the concept of sustainability. Sustainability defines, in fundamental ways, the communities in which we live and is the source for renewable and non renewable resources on which civilization depends. Our health and well-being, our economy, and our social life and safety all require a high quality environment.2 If we act on that understanding, we tend to prosper; if not we would be liable to suffer.Eventually, continuous advancement of industrialization and sophistication of technologies have improved the quality of life on the expenses of resource depletion, environment destruction and global warming. Partly negligence and partly unconscious act of most communities have gradually worsened the environmental issues we are facing today. Therefore, a new roadmap was inevitable. The World Commission on Environment and Development, chaired by former Norwegian Prime Minister G. Harlem Brundtland, alerted the world twenty years ago to the urgency of making progress toward economic development that could be sustained without depleting natural resources or harming the environment. It was introduced as Sustainable development in 1987. It is defined as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" in Our Common Future which is known as the Brundtland Report.
4In general, sustainability is focused on three different aspects; economic sustainability, social sustainability and environmental sustainability. Each segment is vitally important, but it is worth reminding that without economic (or financial) sustainability, not enough attention has been paid to environmental (ecological) sustainability and social sustainability. Furthermore, four key areas f...