Throughout industry and among community groups in Australia there is increasing awareness of the importance of advancing sustainability and as such, a desire to adopt more sustainable practices. In fact, there is a wealth of existing research, strategies and technologies in the area of sustainability and these are part of a host of measures contributing to its advancement in Australia. A national Sustainability Commission, Commissioner and Charter would help coordinate the use of existing sustainability measures and facilitate further development in this area.

Chapter 2 argues the need for defining sustainability in an Australian context. This is followed in Chapter 3 by an outline of the types of issues on the sustainability agenda that need to be considered when determining the nature, content and scope of the proposed Charter. Chapter 4 covers some of the existing international, national and sectoral sustainability strategies and the final chapter examines a broad enabling framework for the proposed national Sustainability Charter.