Sustainable Development of the European Union-Roleof Sustainable Management in Creation of FutureEuropean Society

Abstract

 Abstract—The European Union's entry on the pathway towards sustainable development is a response to global ecological and social threats resulting from man's economic activity. Their main cause is growing production and consumption of material goods, which is a consequence of demographic changes in the world, technological progress and growing standard of living. The Earth's natural environment cannot withstand the excessive exploitation of resources and the effects of the growing pollution with harmful substances, which is proved by the values of the ecological footprint and living planet index. Global threats endanger the prospects of development of future generations. The European Union is taking concrete actions towards sustainable development to limit those unfavourable phenomena. One of the most important undertakings is the socio-economic programme adopted by the European Council in 2010, called Europe 2020 Strategy. These actions are not sufficient. It seems necessary to accelerate the transformation of consumer societies into sustainable societies based on sustainable consumption and sustainable production. A key role in the process is played by sustainable management, which should be implemented on four levels: the European Union, the Member States, organizations operating in those countries, households. The essence of sustainable management is a simultaneous orientation on achievement of economic, ecological and social objectives. Special role in its implementation is played by leaders: managers employed in mega- and micro-organizations and household leaders. Development of sustainable attitudes and behaviours of that group of people is the first and foremost condition of faster formation of sustainable European societies. Index Terms—Sustainable development, sustainable management, sustainable society.