Could thermodynamics solve the problem of sustainability?

Socio-economics, natural capital and other esoteric notions prove themselves to be inadequate again and again when researchers and economists attempt to quantify the degree of sustainability. But, what if consumption of resources by a society or other complex system were simply viewed as a flow of exergy, the useful "work" a system can do? When approached in this way, the concept of sustainability becomes a question of thermodynamics where thresholds can be calculated above or below which a system is either consuming "too much" or "too little" respectively, and so is not in a self-preserving state of equilibrium.

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