This book recognizes that sustainable development is a primary challenge of the twenty-first century (with poverty alleviation as the main goal), and sets out a framework called ‘Sustainomics’ developed over the past 15 years to meet that challenge. Sustainable development is broadly defined here as ‘a process for improving the range of opportunities that will enable individual human beings and communities to achieve their aspirations and full potential over a sustained period of time, while maintaining the resilience of economic, social and environmental systems’.

The main message of this volume is optimistic – although the problems are serious, an effective response can be mounted, provided we begin immediately. Sustainomics seeks to show us the first practical steps in making the transition from the risky business-as-usual scenario to a safer and more sustainable future.

Sustainomics is ‘a transdisciplinary, integrative, comprehensive, balanced, heuristic and practical framework for making development more sustainable’. Unlike other traditional disciplines, it focuses exclusively on sustainable development. Thus, the main principle of the framework seeks to make ongoing and future development efforts more sustainable, as a first step toward the ultimate goal of sustainable development. Other key principles stress: (a) balanced consideration of the three dimensions of the sustainable development triangle (social, economic and environmental); (b) better integration by transcending conventional boundaries imposed by discipline, space, time, stakeholder viewpoints and operational needs; and (c) practical application of innovative methods and tools throughout the full cycle from data gathering to policy implementation and feedback.