Is the industrial industry sustainable, if so, how?
1 Answer
Could you reframe the question? Did you just mean to ask if industry in general can be sustainable? Because in that case, the answer is that it depends.
Explanation:
Every industry is different and some are more conducive to sustainability than others.
The sale of helium gas in party balloons is an unsustainable industry no matter how you regulate, because our supply of this element on Earth is finite. The only way to make it sustainable would be to ban it totally and in that case the industry would in theory cease to exist and it would therefore be niether sustainable nor unsustainable.
On the other hand, an antithetical example is land-based recirculating integrated multi-trophic aquaculture: a business model which if done right, can achieve a high level of sustainability.
However, the implementation of industrial processes from theory into practice is faced with many obstacles: commercial pressures, financial viability and the need to make money to service debt, cover costs or pay returns to investors can make a business plan that is sustainable on paper less than sustainable when put into praxis.
This is a brief outline to a broad and complex question.
If you'd like to reframe your question to something more specific I may be able to provide a more helpful answer. Don't hesitate to ask more questions :)
