This book is the outcome of eight years of teaching the course Sustainability Science for students of the M.Sc. in Sustainable Development at Utrecht University. Its aim is to give a broad overview of what the sciences have to say about sustainable development. To this purpose, it offers a mixture of concepts, theories, models and facts and an invitation to the student to become a critical, independent thinker and to act accordingly.

The book can be used at the B.Sc. level as part of an introductory course or at the M.Sc. level as context for other courses and M.Sc. theses. For most chapters, a high school or college background should be sufficient, but some capacity for abstract thinking is needed. As an introduction into the concept of sustainability and sustainable development issues, it is useful for people in NGOs, government agencies and business who are interested in framing the discourse from multiple perspectives and different scientific disciplines. It can help them to make better decisions for life on a finite planet.