Though it’s just one of nine global parameters, climate change has hogged the spotlight for years. That may all be about to change as the holistic framework known as Planetary Boundaries gains momentum – with early adopters in the outdoor industry.

Today, nations, cities and businesses worldwide are systematically measuring their climate emissions, identifying priority areas and setting reduction targets and timelines heading for net zero by 2050. All to keep us well within relatively “safe limits” where global warming does not exceed 1.5 C of pre-industrial temperatures. It’s been nothing short of a monumental effort getting here. And while we’re still wildly off-track for achieving the 1.5 C target, Climate has arguably gone mainstream.

That’s one down. Just eight more to go.

Sustainability framework 15 years in the making

By now, most people do understand that it’s not all about climate, but that there are many existential threats we face. After all, things like biodiversity loss, declining freshwater availability, microplastic and PFAS pollution regularly make the headlines. But a general understanding of how these all fit into the bigger picture, and how they should be prioritized, has arguably been lacking.

Enter the Planetary Boundaries framework. It first appeared back in 2009, the brainchild of a group of 28 leading academics and scientists including renowned climatologist James Hansen, atmospheric chemist and Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen, and oceanographer Katherine Richardson. The effort was led by the late Will Steffen from the Australian National University and Johan Rockström (acting then as Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre).

The concept they developed is straightforward: Our civilization has flourished under the remarkably stable and favorable conditions of the last 10,000 years, during the epoch known as the Holocene. All we need to do is remain within the safe operating range on all nine key planetary life support systems, and humanity can continue to develop and thrive.

On the other hand, it also highlights how perilously close we are to disaster: We only need to push one of these life support systems by too much, and we risk triggering one of 16 identified “tipping points,” any of which can potentially throw the current planetary stability we depend upon into chaos. Many such tipping points have been identified – but just where the boundary lies for each remains uncertain. Lacking this knowledge, we’re playing a very dangerous game.

 

Applying Planetary Boundaries – in theory

Climate was among the first boundaries measured, and our understanding of how it operates is now supported by a vast body of research and climate models. As many people now have a general understanding of climate change, it also makes an excellent starting point for understanding the other boundaries.

We’ve established with some degree of confidence that our civilization is likely to cope if we limit global temperature rise to 1.5 C above preindustrial temperatures. With a relatively safe limit determined (a “boundary”), it was then calculated that atmospheric CO2 levels should stay below 430ppm if we are to remain within this limit. By subtracting current CO2 levels from 430ppm, we can then determine how much wiggle room we have left – our available “carbon budget.”

Ideally, we use this available budget to plan all our emitting activities, thereby ensuring a safe and just transition to a low carbon society. We can essentially apply the same logic of identifying limits and setting targets that keep us below them to all the other boundaries.

Or so the thinking goes. Back in 2015, we were at 400ppm atmospheric CO2. At the time of writing, we’re already at 424ppm, leaving us with just 6ppm in our budget. In other words, despite all the progress with climate science and policy, we’re clearly not doing a great job. Maybe doing the same thing with eight additional boundaries is a bit much to ask?

Perhaps, but some businesses have already gotten started.

Applying Planetary Boundaries – in practice

In 2015, the Swedish outdoor brand Houdini began exploring how the concepts of planetary boundaries could be used to get a more holistic view of their impact. Three years later in 2018, the company published what it claims to be the first corporate sustainability report based on the planetary boundaries framework. Fredrik Moberg from the environmental consultancy firm Albaeco was part of the team performing the planetary boundaries assessment. He recalls that it wasn’t easy blazing an entirely new path:

“The goal was to downscale the global planetary boundaries framework to the scale of the company and assess their whole value chain’s impact on all nine boundary processes. Needless to say, this was a complicated endeavor at that time.”

But according to Fredrik Moberg, the rewards of putting in the effort paid off in more ways than one. Not only does it help companies avoid focusing on one boundary at the expense of the other (e.g. selecting a product that has lower climate impacts, but results in greater deforestation or freshwater use), it can also help identify the more sustainable strategy overall:

“Interestingly, the framework helped demonstrate that while finding the most sustainably produced fibers or recycling schemes is important, efforts to extend the lives of what we wear tend to be much more important for the outdoor industry to lessen its impact on climate as well as all the other planetary boundaries.”

 

Doughnut Economics: A “perfect” model?

Another outdoor brand that has had its eye on Planetary Boundaries for some time is the German brand Vaude. Hilke Patzwall, Senior Manager Sustainability & CSR at Vaude, admits that it took a few years getting this off the ground:

“We tried several years ago to implement the Planetary Boundaries framework to our business model, but found it wasn’t operational enough yet. So, while we were implementing our climate strategy with Science Based Targets Initiative, we continued reorganizing our sustainability strategy into the planetary boundaries framework.”

At the same time, sustainability began taking off across the outdoor industry, which enabled, among other things, much better traceability and data collection. Seeing the time was right, Vaude began communicating the planetary boundaries more broadly across the company – but with an added twist:

“Last year we began implementing our new strategy with vigor, combining the planetary boundaries framework with the Sustainable Development Goals in the Doughnut Economics model.”

The “doughnut economics” model was proposed by University of Oxford economist Kate Raworth in 2012. It builds upon the Planetary Boundaries framework but integrates a social foundation of basic human needs within the ecological limits. This effectively bridges the planetary boundaries model’s notion of thresholds with social justice – aiming for both sustainable and equitable development.

“As a CSR manager, this model is as close to perfect as it gets,” shares Hilke Patzwall. But for the rest of the organization, Hilke Patzwall admits it needs some explaining. Here, she says it helps to break the framework down into its individual components, explain each, then piece them back together and return to explain how the whole functions together.

“Basically, all you really need is to explain this: Where is the limit, and where are we? From here, we just need to work towards a target that keeps us well within the limits. I haven’t met anybody – even outside my CSR bubble – who isn’t able to wrap their head around that.”

A Planetary Boundaries roadmap

Time will tell if we’re ready to “wrap our heads” around the Planetary Boundaries framework, but the clock is ticking. In 2023, the framework reached a major milestone as all nine boundaries were assessed for the first time. But this achievement was bittersweet, as six of them were found to be already exceeded. And while the framework itself is now operational, Hilke Patzwall warns that newcomers might initially be intimidated and they should be ready for a lack of simple answers, exact numbers and roadmaps that they can easily follow. But she also points out that this landscape is changing dramatically.

At the global policy level, for example, efforts are well-underway to realign the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the Planetary Boundaries framework. The business world’s efforts can similarly expect a boost thanks to The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) recently launched “Science based targets for nature” initiative. SBTi has been critical to corporate climate action, and now will include 5 of the 9 planetary boundaries.

Fredrik Moberg welcomes anything that helps the framework move from academia and into real world applications. And as more heavy-weights join on, perhaps some of the current barriers to the widespread implementation of the planetary boundaries framework can be overcome: Namely a lack of specific and reliable data. But while it may seem that a business-ready Planetary Boundaries framework is still in its infancy, both Fredrik Moberg and Hilke Patzwall agree there’s no reason to stay seated on the fence.

“Even though it is still difficult to come up with exact numbers, it is better to be ‘generally right’ than ‘precisely wrong,’ says Fredrik Moberg.

A sentiment that Hilke Patzwall shares:

“I’m a big fan of don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We don’t have time for perfect, we need to start today with what we’ve got.”

 

 

Lead Graphic: Stockholm Resilience Centre