SUSTAINABILITY, A THIRD WAY OR A THIRD RATE

Sustainability has become a part of our day-to-day life, governmental policies and awareness campaigns on this subject are a constant presence and embracing its principles has never been so easy. However, it comes with a cost, with a financial burden that sometimes may become difficult to cope with. As some countries began to question these costs, especially when referring to sustainability’s toll on competitiveness, many initiatives, programmes or regulations that were supposed to be implemented are now questionable and under a revision process. Some scholars consider that it is already an irreversible process, while others consider that the path towards sustainability has been diverted, especially as some countries are expected to follow the US example, which has already determined even the flagship of sustainable-related regulation, the EU, to take some steps back. As both categories may have strong arguments, perhaps the things that drive our motivation for sustainability should be turning the odds.