The relationship between the sustainability and the sustainable development

The critics of sustainable development concept often origin from the misapprehension of the relationship between the sustainability and the sustainable development. 'Sustainability yes - sustainable development no' is an often heard critic on the combination of two concepts: sustainability and development. It is often cited that the attempt to combine the development with the sustainability may be a paradox. This paper is the attempt to contribute the outwork of those and similar dilemmas on the theoretical level. Through the defining of the sustainability as a characteristics of the process or the state and the sustainable development as a process itself aimed to result with final (normatively defined) sustainability objective, we want to point at the necessity of criteria definition, both for the sustainability as a state and for the sustainable development as a process, aimed to establish measurable indicators and possibility to assess if the process of development is sustainable, as well as if the particular state as a result of the development is sustainable.