The concept of the environment and its protection gradually evolved from the Stockholm UN Conference on the Human Environment in 1972 through the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. According to the understanding that emerged from the Rio Summit and that was reaffirmed at the Johannesburg Summit, the environment is seen as one of the three pillars of sustainable development. This broader view does not restrain the distinct role of the environment but points out its essential interconnection with the other two pillars, namely the economic and social pillars. Therefore, it is appropriate to use the term “environmental sustainability” that stresses both the specificity of the environment and its fundamental anchoring within the sustainability framework.