Yesterday I had a very interesting discussion with a professor at my college about sustainable development. Sustainable development, as defined by the Brundtland Commission in Our Common Future, is “meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the abilities of future generations to meet their needs”. He asked me, “How do you convince the community to work for sustainable development, and delay gratification?”

I did not have a good answer, since that is the question on everyone’s mind. How do you tell people they need to think about tomorrow when today they are starving, or thirsty, or without energy? The root problem, as my professor believes and I agree, is the culture of entitlement. We were having this discussion the in context of post-Apartheid South Africa, when the unified government was established and Africans that had suffered under Apartheid believed that it was their turn to have unlimited access to resources. What they didn’t think about was scarcity. Yes, maldistribution was a giant problem during Apartheid, but straight up redistribution isn’t the only (or best, for that matter) solution. The infrastructure needs to be built for access to be allowed, and even then there must be a sustainable component to the access.

Lack of access to essential resources is an environmental justice issue. Justice, as my professor explained, is a delicate matter. It is here that the sense of entitlement comes into play. Justice comes with responsibility, so that those suffering do not submit to victimhood but instead are empowered and work towards a better future for themselves and their children, as opposed to becoming parasitic, dependent, and disempowered. It is this sense of responsibility to oneself and ones community that is missing, and is an obstacle to sustainable development.This is an obstacle being tackled on the global scale as well. This sense of responsibility to the community, or the public sphere, can be fostered through entrepreneurship.

The interaction of the public and private sphere has traditionally been that the private individual benefits from the resources and work of the public sphere. This is reminiscent of Hardin’s The Tragedy of the Commons. In order for true sustainable development to take place, this must be flipped. It must be the public sphere that benefits from private action, even sacrifice. This can be achieved through entrepreneurship! Energy efficiency, water efficiency, conservation measures are all possible entrepreneurship opportunities. Capitalism got us into this mess…and it’s possible that it could get us out. We don’t need to destroy the system, we just need to change it from the inside. That sounds like something we can do.