3: Sustainable Future

I always become pessimistic when people talk about their designs being ‘sustainable’, as most people assume such sustainability to have grounds in environmental self-sufficiency, expecting people to abandon their current lifestyles for a ‘greener’ option. In striving for environmental sustainability, we ignore our social sustainability, which to most is a more important thing to maintain.

In our future scenario, we predict that Brisbane will be financially crippled by the end of the resources boom, pushing us further into debt with hundreds of thousands of unemployed citizens. The economy will crumble, with businesses unable to support themselves in such a shaky economic climate, meaning that Brisbane will cease to be economically sustainable. The government will therefore have to pour millions of dollars back into the economy, a futile gesture that will render us financially unsustainable. With this lack of economic and financial support, Brisbanites will have to adapt and change their lifestyles, ‘downgrading’ their standard of living in order to keep afloat. So as well as becoming economically and financially unsustainable, Brisbane will also become socially unsustainable as we are unable to maintain our desired lifestyles.

Our proposed scenario (of Brisbane’s corporate sponsorship), would revert Brisbane back to  economic, financial and social sustainability; in pouring billions of dollars into Brisbane’s government, the city can pull itself out of debt and go back to using tax-payers money on improving future resources, rather than settling old debts, thus financial sustainability is restored (even better than what it was before). In return, these businesses would have the ability to experiment with alternative business models in a low-risk environment, of which they can ensure their monopolization and profitability. This reciprocal agreement ensures economic sustainability for our sponsor corporations (what they invest in Brisbane, they get back in profits, experimental ventures, and improved public image), but Brisbane is provided with all the resources it requires (see original post on sponsor companies for breakdown of economic provision). Now that Brisbane is financially and economically sustainable, its residents can now maintain a higher standard of living (or even improve upon it), making them socially sustainable.

In insuring that each company remains profitable in its Brisbane investment, I did research into how much profit the “Big 5” made in 2011, and which business areas awarded the greatest return. While doing this research, I also investigated what areas these companies were looking into developing, and how such industries could blossom within Brisbane. This research showed that the amount invested in Brisbane by each company is less than one year’s profit, a sum they would easily make back through the development of alternative industry (like hotel development for IKEA or hospitals for McDonalds).

This approach to economic, financial and social sustainability may seem unethical, as one of its underpinning provisions is that each of the “Big 5” maintain a monopoly on certain industries, an issue that is destroying the free market and independent businesses. However, as Brisbane will be in such abysmal condition after the mining bust, we may have no other option unless we wish our people to live in a state of fear, disarray and poverty.