Sustainable development is one of the most widespread and pervasive concepts of our time. Nonetheless, such a concept is endowed with not a few internal contradictions. The aim of this short paper is to analyse two of the core elements enshrined in the Brundtland definition of sustainable development, i.e., intergenerational justice and global economic growth (GEG), and to reflect upon the emergence of any possible tension between them. Having understood how to implement the principle of intergenerational justice, and having assessed whether GEG is both necessary for present generations and does not put at risk the needs of future generations, the paper will finally conclude that a comprehensive implementation of the concept of sustainable development (as it is defined in the Brundtland Report) is inherently impossible.