The article elaborates the issues of the role, place and significance at the present stage of human development considering one of the main sections of philosophy - environmental ethics, a science that studies the moral aspect of the relationship of a person (society, humanity) to nature. It is shown that in the early 1970s due to the growth of social injustice (unequal distribution of income and the growth of poverty in developing countries), as well as environmental degradation, which negatively affected human health, in the advanced minds of humanity there arose the need to develop a fundamentally new strategy of humanity development – the development of society should take place inevitably with nature preservation. To define this strategy, the concept of "sustainable development" was introduced. The article outlines five main principles of the sustainable development concept. Also, the introduction of this concept in Ukraine is considered on the example of the analysis of the Sustainable Development Strategy program "Ukraine-2020". The strategy provides for four main movement vectors: vector of development; safety vector; vector of responsibility; vector of pride. To implement the Strategy, it was decided to develop, adopt and implement 62 reforms and programs, of which 10 are priority ones, and key indicators were identified for each movement vector. The implementation of the sustainable development strategy has a moral content and is impossible without a shift in the value orientations of people and this is one of the tasks of environmental ethics