Sustainable living refers to a specific lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual's or society's use of the Earth's natural resources. Practitioners of sustainable living often attempt to reduce their carbon footprints by altering methods of transportation, energy consumption and diet.
Proponents of sustainable and ecological living aim to conduct their lives in manners that are consistent with sustainability, in natural balance and respectful of humanity's symbiotic relationship with the Earth's natural ecology and cycles .
The practice and general philosophy of ecological living is highly interrelated with the overall principles of sustainable development. By minimizing their "ecological footprints"—the extent to which they create an environmental impact—proponents of ecological living hope to preserve the Earth for future generations of human beings and other life.

Lester R. Brown, a prominent environmentalist and founder of the Worldwatch Institute and Earth Policy Institute, describes sustainable living in the 21st century as "shifting to a renewable energy-based, reuse/recycle economy with a diversified transport system."