Sustainability and Health

The term health has been long defined from the epidemiological perspective “as the state of being free from illness or injury”. However, the concept of health has undergone a transition from absence of illness to better and healthy life for oneself and for future generations. This requires promotion and protection of not only our body system but also natural environment that surrounds us. The interlink between Health and Environment has begun to be recognized with the beginning of understanding on sustainability and sustainable development. Hence, there is a present need to look at health from epidemiological perspective to ecological perspective which would make the entire human kind sustainable. The present paper discusses the indiscernible cycle of sustainable environment- development- health from multiple levels- individual, family, and community as a whole. While sustainable healthy behavior at the individual level should be understood from the interactions of beliefs and behavior and action, families and communities should encourage health-promoting environments for sustainable communities and neighborhoods. The paper discusses various challenges of sustainable environments towards health at the various levels.