SUSTAINABILITY IS A WORK OF JUSTICE:

Abstract

The argument most frequently used to justify the call for sustainability in business and life generally is based on notions of distributive justice. This paper sees a strong link between sustainability and justice, but in a different way, concerned more with the development and exercise of the virtue of justice by individuals. Sustainability is thus more personal, and is something involving personal effort. It is a work of justice. Difficulties with the utilitarian and rights approaches to sustainability as just allocation are discussed. Sustainability is seen as a debate about purpose, about what is to be valued, and movement toward sustainability is to be achieved by a work of justice – engaging in that debate both in the local community and between communities, and developing the virtues, including justice, which will facilitate that debate.