New report guides companies and investors to do business within planetary boundaries

“Economic activities are a major reason why humanity is crossing six of the nine planetary boundaries, including climate, biodiversity, water and land. This could make large parts of the world uninhabitable, and also make business impossible or much more costly”, says professor Beatrice Crona, main author of the report that was launched at Norrsken Impact Week in Barcelona today.

The report argues that by anchoring corporate activities in the scientifically developed planetary boundaries framework, businesses can be drivers of transforming societies towards sustainability. But this calls for having full and accurate information about corporate environmental performance.

“What gets measured gets done,” says Beatrice Crona.

The report builds on ten years of transdisciplinary science, combining sustainable finance with ecological economics, resilience science, and Earth system science.

In an emerging corporate reporting landscape, the new report offers guidance to businesses, investors, and policymakers to significantly improve the reliability of their assessment of nature-related impacts, risks and opportunities.

In the EU, reporting according to the CSRD-regulation becomes mandatory for large companies from 2025. The report, however, shows that sustainability reporting practices still focus too much on the company perspective, and not on what is material for the environment.

“What is needed is a shift in perspective, from company to the planet. Reporting should include absolute and location-specific data of the aggregated environmental impact of all the company’s activities,” says Emmy Wassénius, researcher and co-author of the report.

To support this shift, the report introduces “Essential Environmental Impact Variables” (EEIVs). They capture the most essential environmental impact of companies in a standardised manner. These impact disclosures must account for where, what, and how much impact happens. Armed with this information, companies and their investors can gain a vastly more accurate insight into their impact and the resulting risks.

The report also introduces a new science-based tool – the Earth System Impact score (ESI). It offers a way for companies and investors to move beyond impact metrics focused primarily on carbon, and delivers a means to understand and communicate the global effect of their local impacts.

The score can aid investors in their company engagements by identifying key areas for improving environmental performance and facilitating the development of strategic plans to enhance sustainability.

“Accounting for the amplified effects of the interactions between climate, land and water resources improves our understanding of the systemic impact of corporate activities on the Earth System,” says Giorgio Parlato, researcher and co-author of the report.

Read the full report 'Doing business within planetary boundaries' here »