Integrating the Concept of Planetary
Boundaries into Decision Making
Processes
Marcial Vargas-Gonzalez
Abstract What is absolute sustainability? This question has been the centre of
discussion for many years now. During this session, several stakeholders tried to
bring their own answer to the question, discussing issues like the current
Science-Based Targets approach, SDGs, resource criticality and the development of
targets based on the earth’s regenerative capacity. And while different topics were
addressed and the need to develop more robust approaches was apparent, all presenters were aligned on the need to help companies incorporate the notion of
planetary boundaries in their business practices in order to address as quickly as
possible the environmental issues of the 21st century.
1 Introduction
What is sustainability? This question has been the centre of discussion for many
years now. From the environmental point of view, sustainability was considered up
until now as improving the environmental performance of your company or
product. This was therefore about being more sustainable than someone else’s
company or product but not about becoming sustainable in absolute terms.
The Planetary Boundaries concept provides insights on what environmental
sustainability means at the global level, i.e. what is the planet’s resilience threshold
within which we can keep developing. This being said, a major question arises: how
can we translate such concepts at a corporate level to enable better decision-making
processes?
Two levers are being currently investigated:
– Using Planetary Boundaries as a new normalization system in LCA approaches
to assess the product’s sustainability and the material challenges it faces [1, 2].
M. Vargas-Gonzalez (&)
Quantis International, Paris, France
e-mail: Marcial.vargas-gonzalez@quantis-intl.com
© The Author(s) 2018
E. Benetto et al. (eds.), Designing Sustainable Technologies,
Products and Policies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66981-6_45
407
Boundaries into Decision Making
Processes
Marcial Vargas-Gonzalez
Abstract What is absolute sustainability? This question has been the centre of
discussion for many years now. During this session, several stakeholders tried to
bring their own answer to the question, discussing issues like the current
Science-Based Targets approach, SDGs, resource criticality and the development of
targets based on the earth’s regenerative capacity. And while different topics were
addressed and the need to develop more robust approaches was apparent, all presenters were aligned on the need to help companies incorporate the notion of
planetary boundaries in their business practices in order to address as quickly as
possible the environmental issues of the 21st century.
1 Introduction
What is sustainability? This question has been the centre of discussion for many
years now. From the environmental point of view, sustainability was considered up
until now as improving the environmental performance of your company or
product. This was therefore about being more sustainable than someone else’s
company or product but not about becoming sustainable in absolute terms.
The Planetary Boundaries concept provides insights on what environmental
sustainability means at the global level, i.e. what is the planet’s resilience threshold
within which we can keep developing. This being said, a major question arises: how
can we translate such concepts at a corporate level to enable better decision-making
processes?
Two levers are being currently investigated:
– Using Planetary Boundaries as a new normalization system in LCA approaches
to assess the product’s sustainability and the material challenges it faces [1, 2].
M. Vargas-Gonzalez (&)
Quantis International, Paris, France
e-mail: Marcial.vargas-gonzalez@quantis-intl.com
© The Author(s) 2018
E. Benetto et al. (eds.), Designing Sustainable Technologies,
Products and Policies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66981-6_45
407