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TopSustainable Development And Environmental Management Systems
The topics of sustainable development and environmental management systems have gained importance in the last decade (Mas, et, al.2019). The World Environment and Development Commission published the most common definition of sustainable development in its 1987 Brundtland report. In the report referred to as "Our Common Future" and "Brundtland Report", the product of the commission's work, one of the most used definitions was made by referring to the concept of sustainable development (Ekşi, 2019). According to this report, sustainable development is taking measures to prevent a decrease in the welfare of future generations while meeting the needs of the current generation (Öner andAğca, 2018; Babacan, 2010). The report also includes the eradication of poverty in general, equality in the distribution of natural resources, population control, and the development of environmentally friendly technologies (Tıraş, 2012).
Sustainable development handles three basic elements which are economic, environmental and social, which interact with each other and need to be addressed simultaneously. In this framework, it is necessary to ensure the continuity of diversity and healthy environments in the economic field together with the creation of these. Economic sustainability means that the company has a solid financial structure and profits (Akgül, 2010).
The most important factor in corporate sustainability activities is the environment. Environment is the condition for all living things to survive. The fact that businesses neglect one of the environmental, economic and social areas jeopardizes the ongoing activities and future of all businesses (Öner and Ağca, 2018). The studies of scientists in the field of natural sciences and economics alone are not enough to ensure sustainable development. To achieve sustainable development, political cohesion and integrated scientific information systems that go far beyond combining institutions and science must work together (Polasky, et al. 2019). The environmental dimension of sustainable development is that biological and physical systems are balanced and the ecosystem adapts to changing conditions. Therefore, it is now accepted that development and the environment are inseparable, and that sustainable development is the development model of today and the future (Tıraş, 2012).
In this context, "Environmental Management Systems" have been organized to ensure sustainability (Kaypak, 2011). Environmental Management Systems have emerged with the increase in energy consumption, decrease in natural resources, environmental pollution and deterioration of the eco-system (Hikichi, Salgado and Beijo, 2017; Tepetelen and Özdemir, 2003), degradation of the ozone layer, degradation of forest areas, erosion and all other environmental pollution threatening our world, especially after the industrial revolution. With these developments, although consumption has increased in some segments of the society in the socio-economic field, it is observed that poverty has increased in some segments (Akgül, 2010). Previously, approaches that suggested that natural resources have the characteristics of recurrence and continuous availability have been widely accepted.Even in this direction, the search for a solution to environmental problems has been ignored. This approach, which brings with it greater risks (Kaypak, 2011), has revealed the need to prepare economic development plans that will eliminate inequality in the use of limited resources and save people from poverty.