Innovating within the planetary boundaries: with seven boundaries breached, action is urgently needed

Science-based sustainability strategies are on the rise. The intention is ambitious – by engaging with science, company actions could move from incremental greening efforts to transformative change that aligns with the planetary boundaries.

At the heart of science-based strategies is the planetary boundaries framework, initially published in 2009. The planetary boundaries are a natural science framework, the first to scientifically quantify on a global scale the safe boundaries of human impact on the natural environment. The planetary boundaries are defined by nine key Earth systems processes, such as climate change, biodiversity, land-system change, and freshwater change, and the amount of pressure that human consumption and production place on those boundaries. When the boundaries are breached, risks for humanity increase due to the increasing instability of the Earth’s systems.

With the latest update of the planetary boundaries, scientists found seven of the nine are now breached. In fall 2025, ocean acidification was the boundary most recently breached. Ocean acidification levels are now too high and threatening marine life. “This intensifying acidification stems primarily from fossil fuel emissions, and together with warming and deoxygenation affects everything from coastal fisheries to the open ocean. The consequences ripple outward impacting food security, global climate stability, and human wellbeing,” explained Levke Caesar, one of the lead authors of the update report from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

With more boundaries breached, businesses need to set ambitious targets and implement radical innovations to return to the safe operating space.

Companies Still Struggle to Take Action

Businesses are aware of science-based initiatives and the planetary boundaries, but struggle to implement strategies. One reason is that key indicators, as quantified by the planetary boundaries framework, are at a global level. Off-the-shelf approaches to bridge this gap between firm-level impacts and global-level indicators do not currently exist. Without an understanding of firm impacts against the planetary boundaries, executives stall before implementing concrete action plans.

The process of downscaling the planetary boundaries to determine a firm’s fair share of the safe operating space remains a highly technical and academic process. Interdisciplinary scientists, united by the Earth Commission, are working on approaches to make. They identified 11 sharing approaches to the boundaries across scales to the business level. Then, based on the principle, the process of calculating the share relies on available data and modeling approaches. Luckily, some entrepreneurial efforts are underway to make the process of aligning with the planetary boundaries much easier to implement and closer to firm-level action – at the product level.

Taking Action at the Product Level

Natropy, a sustainability consultancy, has developed the Adaptive Planetary Resilience Exchange System (APres), based on science and in collaboration with environmental NGOs, to help companies develop products that are fit for value creation in a world constrained by the planetary boundaries. APres proposes a model to assess absolute pressures on the planetary boundaries across the entire value chain, from raw materials production to end of life. APres considers absolute impact on the planetary boundaries and the level of natural resource withdrawals that are possible for local ecosystems to be maintained. Wide Open World was the first company to use APres. This entrepreneurial designer of sustainable knitwear sources wool from a farm in Tasmania and carries out dyeing and production in Europe. With the aim of maintaining ecological balance, it assesses how the production of its sweaters puts pressure on the planetary boundaries.

For the land-use change and biodiversity boundaries, Wide Open World determined how much land can be used for production and how much should remain under natural conditions to ensure that nature can renew and support biodiversity. For example, 30% of farmland should be kept as natural habitat, and 10% under strict conservation to support the biosphere integrity boundary. To ensure that these restrictions are maintained and that nature thrives, Wide Open World pays farmers for their stewardship services.

For novel entities, Wide Open World adheres to the most stringent standards in terms of chemical use. Its sweaters contain only natural fibers. Some processing along the supply chain relies on plastics, such as wrapfor shipping pallets or containers for processing chemicals, but the levels are not deemed material in relation to output. No chemicals or dyes are used that are identified as hazardous according to OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100 limits.

For the climate boundary, emissions are measured for scopes 1, 2, and 3, including farming, production, transportation, consumer washing, and end-of-life. An internal carbon price of at least €50 per ton has been set to incentivize fossil fuel emission reduction initiatives, both at the value chain and systemic economic level. APres prioritizes effective land-use practices and protecting biodiversity to limit physical economic expansion and tackle rising emissions. If all economic production is contained within ecological limits given the land available, then emissions would likely decrease because many countries have already exhausted natural resources beyond their carrying capacities. Respecting the land-system change and biosphere integrity boundaries would likely decrease overall production rates in many countries.

Next, Wide Open World plans to examine its business model in light of the freshwater change and biogeochemical flows boundaries. By embedding planetary boundaries into its value-creation logic, the company ensures that its activities remain compatible with the integrity of local and regional ecosystems. Rather than seeking to eliminate all human impacts, which are inherent to any form of production, APres requires that these impacts stay within scientifically defined safe thresholds, so that value creation exerts pressure on the biosphere without crossing the limits beyond which ecosystems become degraded or unstable.

Concluding Remarks

Initiatives such as Natropy are starting to pave a path forward for corporate strategies to align with science. Importantly, action will need to happen across companies, not just at the product level.

Aligning with science means building long-term resilience both for business and for ecosystems. If businesses put less pressure on the boundaries, Earth systems may become more stable, and supply chain disruptions could occur less frequently. With supply chain disruptions on the rise, returning to the safe operating space means less risk and more predictable futures. It also means a healthy planet with thriving ecosystems for all.