Sustainability, as I understand it so far, is made for a more ecological worldview.  This worldview is one where there isn't much of a hierarchy in markets, politics and society.  Third world countries suffer from these market-driven hierarchies, where their profitable land, whether it's mining or agriculture is bought out from foreign entities and the people pretty much become slaves to that company which put them to work.  A good example is like Nestle in Peru, where milk and cheese is produced from cows, but later on all of it is shipped overseas.  Coffee too, most of it is grown and harvested all over South America, but it's then shipped out to Germany where it's roasted, then distributed.  Most of that money then is given directly to German coffee companies. 

　In a more sustainable market, people will have a direct link to the source of their food or whatever product they need instead of it going maybe all over the world.  Local markets and cities that are developed and adapted to depend on itself rather than depending on imported goods will save not only on energy for transportation, but also help the local environment from foreign invasive species.  These could include foreign pollen or seeds from cross-country transportation, invasive species in balast tanks like the zebra mussels in the Great Lakes, wood-eating beetles nesting in wooden international shipping pallets, or even the killer algae from France that's now spread all over the northern Mediterranean. 

　There must also be sustainability with how we use our environment.  Using the environment sustainably means to use its resources that we need, but making sure our future generations have the same opportunity as well.  One of the worst examples so far is the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.  Oil isn't replenishable like timber, but its very valuable, and has a lot of potential energy that we haven't figured out how to use yet completely.  Not only did the disaster waste a lot of precious material, but it ruined a lot of the natural habitat on the coast for years, and probably ruined a lot of other livelyhoods because one other company was too greedy.  So, this was not sustainable, because it let down many future generations and nature itself, which is also very poor environmental ethics

　Also good sustainable politics is a solid democratic system like it was back in the day when the country was founded.  This means getting involved in local politics regularly and not letting rich businesses sway the outcome of a political idea or law, like what happened in South Central.  Even though this is a democracy, it seems like it's changed back into a heirarcy funded by Steve Jobs and other companies that make crappy crap.