The recent United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, popularly known as the Earth Summit, was a milestone event for sustainable development. In dealing with ecological and developmental issues concurrently, it brought the international environmental agenda to the fore. Canada was the first industrialized country to announce that it would be a signatory to the Biodiversity Convention, and by furthering future forestry and global warming conventions, it played an important leadership role.

Achieving Sustainable Development explores how well Canada has met the Earth Summit's targets and attempts to find ways in which the public can become involved in such issues. Its authors stress the importance of integration of information from various fields and seek to stimulate the exchange of knowledge among the academic community, government, non-governmental organizations and industry. The contributors look far beyond merely identifying and analyzing selected issues and problems. To facilitate public discussion and to affect policy development, at least one initiative is proposed and detailed for each problem identified.

Achieving Sustainable Development provides an overall introduction to critical subjects in sustainable development -- industrial growth, women, institutional arrangements, industrial practices, and aboriginal peoples. Most importantly, it argues for the immediate development of a research and policy agenda for Canada and suggests mechanisms for its implementation.