<P> The Cuban - born researcher and entrepreneur Sonia Bueno suggests an alternative approach that is based upon the integral, long - term cost - benefit relationship as a measure and monitoring tool for the sustainability of every project, activity or enterprise . Furthermore, this concept aims to be a practical guideline towards sustainable development following the principle of conservation and increment of value rather than restricting the consumption of resources . </P> <P> Reasonable qualifications of sustainability are seen U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). This design incorporates some ecological, economic, and social elements . The goals presented by LEED design goals are sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmospheric emission reduction, material and resources efficiency, and indoor environmental quality . Although amount of structures for sustainability development is many, these qualification has become a standard for sustainable building . </P> <P> Recent research efforts created also the SDEWES Index to benchmark the performance of cities across aspects that are related to energy, water and environment systems . The SDEWES Index consists of 7 dimensions, 35 indicators, and close to 20 sub-indicators . It is currently applied to 58 cities . </P> <P> The sustainable development debate is based on the assumption that societies need to manage three types of capital (economic, social, and natural), which may be non-substitutable and whose consumption might be irreversible . Leading ecological economist and steady - state theorist Herman Daly, for example, points to the fact that natural capital cannot necessarily be substituted by economic capital . While it is possible that we can find ways to replace some natural resources, it is much more unlikely that they will ever be able to replace eco-system services, such as the protection provided by the ozone layer, or the climate stabilizing function of the Amazonian forest . In fact natural capital, social capital and economic capital are often complementarities . A further obstacle to substitutability lies also in the multi-functionality of many natural resources . Forests, for example, not only provide the raw material for paper (which can be substituted quite easily), but they also maintain biodiversity, regulate water flow, and absorb CO2 . </P>

What is the importance of sustainable development in today's life