According to the UN, sustainability means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development calls for concerted efforts towards building an inclusive, sustainable and resilient future for people and the planet and definitions usually call for harmonizing three core elements: economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection. 

Hop Hopkins, Director of Organizational Transformation, Sierra Club wrote in an article titles “Racism Is Killing the Planet,” that the ideology of white supremacy leads the way toward disposable people and a disposable natural world. “All I know is that if climate change and environmental injustice are the result of a society that values some lives and not others, then none of us are safe from pollution until all of us are safe from pollution.”

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The principle of a just transition is that a healthy economy and a clean environment can and should co-exist, advocates moving away from extractive and exploitative models, toward regenerative resources, mutuality and an economy that values workers and the environment.