Approaches to defining the essence of the concept of sustainable development are analyzed; the definition of sustainable development in terms of "challenge", "response" basing on the provisions of the civilizational approach is suggested. The paper suggests considering the development to be sustainable if it provides the ability for society to form adequate "responses" to the "challenges" that arise in the process of civilizational development. Emphasis is placed on the necessity, in the context of the concept of sustainable development, of the transition from economic to ecological-economic system (hereinafter EES). Sustainable development of the EES is a development that combines the environmental, economic and social aspects of society. The necessity of forming sustainable development potential to achieve sustainable development goals as a set of different types of resources and other factors needed to achieve specific sustainable development goals is substantiated. At the same time, the continuity of the development is achieved without the quantitative growth of many traditional economic parameters and, above all, further continuous population growth, extensive economic growth and anthropogenic pressure on the biosphere. Based on the analysis of approaches to interpreting the concept of "potential", the methodological bases for forming the potential for sustainable development of ecological and economic systems are developed. The relationship between system resources and the potential of the ecological and economic system is studied. Ecological and economic potential is considered as a result of synergetic interaction of potentials of the main subsystems: ecological, social and industrial. This potential identifies opportunities for the development of a particular ecological and economic system to achieve the goals of sustainable development of the ecological and economic system as a whole and its main subsystems. 

potential, ecological and economic system, development, sustainable development, ecological and economic potential