Our understanding of sustainability arose from the work of women writers in the 60s and 70s. In 1961 Jane Jacobs writes The Death and Life of Great American Cities, a riposte to modernist planning in general and Robert Moses and Le Corbusier in particular. In 1962 scientist and journalist, Rachel Carson, writes Silent Spring; the US Environmental Protection Act (and others such as Australia’s) are a direct result of her work. In 1972 Barbara Ward and Rene Dubois write Only One Earth: The Care and Maintenance of a Small Planet, where the word sustainability as we use it now first appears. In the same year Donatello Meadows et al. write The Limits to Growth, 50 years on it is still a leading text. You can read more about them here.