Vol. XXXVIII / 1 - Studia Moralia

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AS A TASK OF THE STATE. ETHICAL ASPECTS 219
and adequate development opportunities (just distribution
worldwide: intra-generational justice).
d) Securing the physical pre-requisites for a worthy human
existence for future generations (intergenerational justice).
This model implies a number of basic ideas that are
significant from social ethics point of view [the goal of
maintaining living standards, while also conserving natural
resources (industrialised countries); the goal of upgrading
economic-social conditions without destroying natural
resources (developing countries); the goal of peaceful global
partnership] 4 .
This list of tasks shows that the model of sustainability I
propose belongs to the systemic and structural level.
The central function, in both conceptual and practical
terms, is the appropriate inter-connecting of the three main
components: ecology, economics and social concerns. These
components are understood to be three autonomous but
nonetheless interdependent dimensions of social development.
To distinguish and specify this networking function, the German
Council of Experts on Environmental Issues (Deutscher
Sachverständigenrat für Umweltfragen, SRU) has suggested
using the expression “retinity” (“Retinität” in German; derived
from the Latin word “rete” which means “net”) or the “principle
of retinity” 5 . This neologism precisely captures the essence of
the sustainability theme: sustainability requires first and
foremost balanced allocation and reciprocal facilitation of
integration among the three component areas – with a forwardlooking,
precautionary view for the good of the whole. In the
4
For a detailed discussion of the implications of the model cf. Münk,
H.J., ”Nachhaltige Entwicklung und Soziallehre”, Stimmen der Zeit 216 (4)
(1998), pp. 231-245.
5
Der Rat von Sachverständigen für Umweltfragen (SRU),
Umweltgutachten 1994, Für eine dauerhaft-umweltgerechte Entwicklung
(Stuttgart: Metzler-Poeschel, 1994), pp. 54f. The Commission, which is
joined to the German Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and
Nuclear Reactor Security, thereby took up a proposal of Wilhelm Korff; cf.
Korff, W., ”Wirtschaft vor der Herausforderung der Umweltkrise”, Zeitschrift
für Evangelische Ethik 36 (1992), p. 168.