The Challenges of Applying Planetary Boundaries as a Basis for Strategic Decision-Making in Companies with Global Supply Chains

Abstract

Abstract:The Planetary Boundaries (PB) framework represents a significant advance in specifying the ecological constraints on human development. However, to enable decision-makers in business and public policy to respect these constraints in strategic planning, the PB framework needs to be developed to generate practical tools. With this objective in mind, we analyse the recent literature and highlight three major scientific and technical challenges in operationalizing the PB approach in decision-making: first, identification of thresholds or boundaries with associated metrics for different geographical scales; second, the need to frame approaches to allocate fair shares in the 'safe operating space' bounded by the PBs across the value chain and; third, the need for international bodies to co-ordinate the implementation of the measures needed to respect the Planetary Boundaries. For the first two of these challenges, we consider how they might be addressed for four PBs: climate change, freshwater use, biosphere integrity and chemical pollution and other novel entities. Four key opportunities are identified: (1) development of a common system of metrics that can be applied consistently at and across different scales; (2) setting 'distance from boundary' measures that can be applied at different scales; (3) development of global, preferably open-source, databases and models; and (4) advancing understanding of the interactions between the different PBs. Addressing the scientific and technical challenges in operationalizing the planetary boundaries needs be complemented with progress in addressing the equity and ethical issues in allocating the safe operating space between companies and sectors.

Natural Resource Economics, Planetary Boundaries and Strong Sustainability

“…Private investors tend to under-invest in the research and development (R&D) necessary to develop new "green" innovations, because they are unable to capture the full benefits of these advances as they rapidly spread throughout the economy and even to overseas competitors [10,[19][20][21]. Overcoming this disincentive cannot be achieved solely through the use of price incentives but requires the simultaneous implementation of "technology-push policies", such as R&D subsidies, public investments, protecting intellectual property, and other initiatives [10,19].…”

Detecting unsustainable pressures exerted on biodiversity by a company. Application to the food portfolio of a retailer

“…Assessing the impacts on biodiversity of the whole value chain of a company would require large and geographically resolved datasets. Despite important efforts so far to increase data quality and coverage, such an extensive approach is currently not practicable (Clift et al, 2017). In this perspective to support business decision making, a more pragmatic approach can be to focus on the most critical stages of the value chain when previous studies enable to identify hotspots, which is the option chosen for the present case study.…”

“…They proposed as interim control variables global extinction rate and the Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII). Further work is needed to improve data quality and define biome-specific boundaries at a refined scale (Clift et al, 2017). Other theoretical boundaries correspond to the three levels of biological diversity: "the genetic library of life" -reflecting the link between phylogenetic diversity and ecosystem resilience on the long-term, "levels of functional diversity" -accounting for biological functional diversity underlying ecosystem services, and "biome integrity" -translating how different drivers affect biomes states at a global scale (Mace et al, 2014).…”

Can the SDGs Provide a Basis for Supply Chain Decisions in the Construction Sector?

“…Although the SDGs have been presented as a way to enable more radical reductions in unsustainability, they do not challenge the incremental approach and as yet have not offered targets based on operating boundaries. The targets and indicators that do currently exist offer limited guidance on how commercial actions can be effectively aligned with the SDGs or the Planetary Boundaries [37]. Currently the only explicitly "business focused" indicator for SDG12 is Indicator 12.6.1-"Number of companies publishing sustainability reports" [70]-which is focussed on process rather than outcome.…”

“…Responsibility in supply chain management implies operating within ecological limits, as represented by the Planetary Boundaries defining the "safe operating space for humanity" [35,36], although there are serious difficulties in developing an operational approach to planning based on the Planetary Boundaries [37]. However, recognising that "sustainability" includes social equity, supply networks need to be more than just sequences of activities operating within ecological constraints; a supply network can be viewed as a set of relationships that convey benefits in both directions [23,38].…”