The dramatic changes in nature, the increasing frequency of climate extremes, social and economic changes, as the creation of new global associations have led to a faster development of awareness of the need to preserve the natural environment and improve living conditions. The values of a healthy and preserved natural environment are unfortunately made aware by the human being when he or she is already endangered or destroyed. Environmental problems, on a dramatic scale, directly affect human health and thus threaten the survival of life on this planet. In recent decades, humanity has seen the magnitude of the problem that environmental degradation has become one of the major obstacles to further economic development. Responsibility and obligation, as for the present, is even more so for the future, therefore it is necessary to build and develop an awareness of the preservation of the natural environment trough sustainable economic development. With the help of environmental policy as an environmental economics, we aim to stabilize and harmonize the relationship between the goals of economic development, profit policy and the goals of environmental policy. In today and in the future, economic development planning for an area will be exclusively feasible in accordance with the principles of sustainable development, primarily for reasons of responsibility for the legacy of future generations. The aim of this paper is to explain in detail the above mentioned issues and, trough the example of the concept of the Sustainable Development Strategy of the City of Karlovac tor the period 2013 – 2020, to practically present the concept of sustainable development in that local community.