UNSDG18

The sustainable monetisation of space in the third millennium

We continue to consume our very own, and only, home from under our own feet. We also continue to litter every environment we come to touch, from oceans to land, rivers and lakes, atmosphere, and outer space. Human productivity is evidently oblivious to and unconcerned with what it leaves behind, and how it endangers its very own continuity and evolution. One of the main reasons for such a suboptimal outcome can be found in our financial value framework, in the principles of finance that have governed financial education and training, our markets and investments. The root cause is in the value equations of core finance theory and practice, in the equations that have been, and still are, focused on risk and time, serving one stakeholder, the mortal risk-averse return maximising investor. To address the evolutionary challenges we have created for ourselves, we need to redefine the value of money beyond risk and time. In truth, we have an entire analytical dimension missing in our financial value framework, i.e., space. Our equations, geared towards assessing the value of cash flows vis-à-vis risk and time, omit the space impact of cash flows and assets in the value equations of those cash flows and assets. To truly redirect human productivity, to sustainably monetise space across all its layers, we must reimagine the value of money and the institutional structures that create it. Today, money and our monetary architecture act as an evolutionary bottleneck for the sustainable and continuous expansion of human productivity across time and space.