What Exactly is Sustainable Living?

I have been reading a lot about the sustainable living movement. It is growing by leaps and bounds, but as for a simple definition on how to live simply, well I am stumped.

If I said I was a vegan everyone would know that being a vegan means I don't eat dairy and I don't use eggs. When I tell someone I have chosen to live a sustainable lifestyle, most people would not know what I was talking about.

From the Wikipedia on line encyclopedia the term sustainable is defined as "the ability to continue a defined behavior indefinitely." They go on to further define sustainable living as, "a lifestyle that could, hypothetically, be sustained without exhausting any natural resources. The term can be applied to individuals or societies. Its adherents most often hold true sustainability as a goal or guide, and make lifestyle trade-offs favoring sustainability."

I wanted to find out what other definitions of sustainable living are out there. I felt that living a lifestyle without exhausting any natural resources was a little vague. How do I not exhaust any natural resources? I just did not understand?

I came across the Sustainable Living Network, an informal organization of people seeking to further understand the practice of sustainable living. They define the concept as, "an approach to social and economic, indeed, all activities, for all societies, rich and poor, which is compatible with the preservation of the environment. It is based on a philosophy of interdependence, of respect for life as well as non-living parts of Nature, and of responsibility for future generations. "

If we approach sustainable living as a way of life that will preserve and protect the earth for our children it makes the concept a lot easier to grasp.

To live sustainably means to live in a manner that preserves our environment. The path to living sustainably has many different roads. To live sustainably one would need to reduce the impact on the earths resources.