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Business View Magazine
Furman University Center for Sustainability
“There is amazing progress being made”
“You know, sustainability is this clunky, six-syllable
word that people often question: ‘What do you really
mean when you want sustainability?’ And there’s all
kinds of jargon out there that can describe it.” These
words were spoken, recently, by Dr. Angela Halfacre,
Director of the David E. Shi Center for Sustainability,
and Professor of Political Science and Sustainabil-
ity Science at Furman University in Greenville, South
Carolina. So, perhaps an exploration of the “jargon,”
alluded to by Dr. Halfacre, is in order.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA): “Sustainability creates and maintains the condi-
tions under which humans and nature can exist in pro-
ductive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, eco-
nomic and other requirements of present and future
generations.” Elsewhere, sustainability is explained
as “the endurance of systems and processes. The
organizing principle for sustainability is sustainable
development, which includes the four interconnected
domains: ecology, economics, politics, and culture.”
Halfacre, herself, contributes this elucidation: “I will
say that the use of sustainability is encouraging our
