progress stated in environmental reports, like the ones that are required by the EMAS. Finally the OECD in June 2000 has issued directives for multinational ventures. These directives contain principles concerning the striving towards sustainable development by ventures.
             While companies practicing sustainable development must abide by extra sets of rules bringing with them added costs, they are not mandatory for the competition, creating unfair competition.
             1.1 Problem Statement and Research Questions
             The effect human activity has on our planet will lead to a stagnating status in the near future according to the report "Barriers to Development" presenting the results of a computer-based research done by Dennis Meadows in 1972. The research was mainly aimed at the depletion of natural resources and as a consequence the halt of economic development. While the research was critized for not taking into account alternative resources and technological inventions it displayed the need for sustainable development. The scenarios for the future depicted in a number of more recent publications also stress that a more sustainable society is a necessity.
             "9 billion people in 2050 would require between 1.8 and 2.2 Earth-sized planets in order to sustain their consumption of crops, meat, fish, and wood, and to hold CO2 levels constant in the atmosphere."
             "As temperatures rise during this decade, some regions experience severe storms and flooding. In 2007, surging seas break through levees in the Netherlands, making The Hague 'unlivable.'"
             In the short history of sustainable development however there have been subsidies, added reporting rules, unfair competition and few success stories. Through an inventory of the principles of sustainable development, it's successes and failures, and an analysis of our free-market economy this research will give an insight into how compatible sustainable development is with the free-market eco...