AbstractSustainable development poses challenges and opportunities to the development and management of business and technological systems. Most significantly, sustainability moves beyond meeting an economic and environmental bottom line to a triple bottom line of integrated economic, environmental, and social factors. Over 30 years there has been a paradigm shift that has led to the greening of industrial practices with regards to the environment. As evidence continues to demonstrate linkages between environmental causes and effects, problem‐solving techniques have been developed to meet both economic and environmental goals along with metrics to measure environmental performance. Today, sustainable development presents another paradigm shift and adds social considerations as a third element to the bottom line. This article describes the evolution from greening to sustaining and outlines the implication of developing metrics in the sustainable development context.© 1999 John Wiley&Sons, I