Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations.

Sustainability also referred to as sustainable development can therefore be defined as Improvement in the quality of human life within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations‖ as stated by the Brundtland Commission.

Environmental sustainability seeks to sustain global life support systems indefinitely. Source capacities of the global ecosystem provide raw materials such as food, water, air and energy, while sink capacities assimilate outputs or waste

Economic sustainability revolves on consuming interest, rather than capital and can be defined as the amount of goods that can be consumed during a period, while remaining well off at the end of the period

Social sustainability involves human capital that invests in education, health, and nutrition of individuals and is now accepted as a part of economic development. Ultimately, there can be no social sustainability without environmental sustainability because environmental sustainability supplies the conditions for social sustainability.

It is all too easy to overlook this dependency, particularly at a time when human species is becoming increasingly and distanced from these (World Health Organization) life-support, integrated, sustainable systems. As a result of human induced impacts on these systems, the human species have now placed their lives on the line. Human health plays an integral role on human existence and development, therefore an omnipresent and undeniable link exist between human health and sustainability. this relationship has been established specially in four systematic impacts: population, food shortage, natural disasters and climatechange.

The link between human health and sustainability reveals that the growing awareness that long term human population health depends on the continued flow of nature‘s goods and services and the argument for world communities to take concerted action to minimize global environmental change. It is quite obvious that acting now to sustain natural capital to reduce future risks to human health would help alleviate many of the existing local and global health problems associated with poverty, inequity, and environmental degradation.

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights states that, “the enjoyment of the highest standards of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, and political belief, economic or social condition”. The full enjoyment of the right to health is critical for the enjoyment of other human rights. Good health is thus an end in itself and it plays an integral role in human capabilities and well-being. Health is central to the three dimensions of sustainable development. Health is a beneficiary of and a contributor to development. It is also a key indicator of what people-centred, rights-based, inclusive, and equitable development seeks to achieve. Health is important as an end in itself and as an integral part of human well-being, which includes material, psychological, social, cultural, educational, work, environmental, political, and personal security dimensions.