Environmental Sustainability and Sustainable Growth: A Global Outlook

This thesis examines the concept of environmental sustainability with a focus on global efforts to achieve this. The purpose of this capstone is to assess efforts made to curb the impact of environmental degradation on the society by some developed and developing countries such as Switzerland, United States of America and China. Excessive emphasis on environmental sustainability using some policies could hurt the economic activities of a country through loss of jobs and societal mishaps while on the other hand too much emphasis on economic growth could result into health risks, global warming and environmental degradation within the society. This thesis further discusses the need to strive towards a balance between environmental sustainability and economic growth. Sustainable environment and growth can only be achieved through the integration of policies that connect the environment, the economy and the society. Also, the paper analyzes a number of strategic initiatives adopted by some developed countries that other countries can adopt to achieve the balance between environmental sustainability and growth through the integration of policies that connect the environment, society and economy. And from the analyses, I conclude by outlining efforts that should be explored at the global level in order to achieve this desired balance.