Scientists find way to translate sustainability boundaries into company budgets

The Earth Commission has published a protocol and highlighted the need for businesses to work more closely with cities.

Scientists have developed a way for companies to translate the world’s environmental and social limits into budgets for their business operations.

The Earth Commission, a scientific body convened by UN-backed non-profit Future Earth, has published 10 principles and a protocol that it says will help turn established ‘Earth system boundaries’ (ESBs) into usable metrics and thresholds. 

ESBs are based on the nine existing planetary boundaries – climate, land, oceans etc – but also factor in the constraints that ecosystems must operate within in order to remain safe and equitable social conditions for society. 

“‘Translating’ is a process in which ESBs are converted into budgets that are more meaningful for stakeholders – converting them, for example, into budgets for volume of freshwater use per year, or amount of nitrogen fertiliser applied per hectare per year,” explained Exeter University in a statement published alongside the new paper. 

In addition to companies, the protocol has been designed with cities in mind. 

“We looked at how cities and businesses could translate ESBs,” said Gail Whiteman, Professor of Sustainability at the University of Exeter Business School, and a co-author of the research. “So how companies would translate these macro-level boundaries into their TCFD and TNFD reports, for example, and what they should be looking at from a reporting and measurement perspective.”

But the research highlighted a lack of coordination between cities and companies, noted Whiteman. 

“When we looked at the top 500 companies and the 200 largest urban areas, we found there was not anywhere near as much overlap as there should be when it came to their net zero pledges, for instance.”

Companies with headquarters or significant operations in certain cities should work more closely with those cities to align their objectives and protect ESBs, she suggested. Likewise, cities with net zero pledges could pressure key companies to adopt similar commitments. 

“What this paper does is attempt to give real advice on what principles should be used for reporting and measuring, and offer guidance on how to do it,” said Whiteman.   

The paper was published in the Nature journal today.