How the planetary boundaries can inspire innovation that is sustainable, by design

Our planet is under pressure, from climate change to ocean acidification. Discover how innovation can solve global challenges and create new opportunities for a healthy, sustainable future within the Earth’s limits.

The pursuit of environmental sustainability has long guided forward-thinking businesses. However, this has become a much more urgent priority as we face rapid global warming and catastrophic climate shocks. 

From the dawn of mechanised production in the 18th Century to the rise of computing and automation in the 20th Century, the first three industrial revolutions created great wealth and prosperity. However, that came at great expense to the environment. For the sake of future generations, we must ensure that the fourth and fifth industrial revolutions, which are rapidly evolving now, do not repeat the same mistake. 

In 2009, scientists developed a robust framework to help prevent global environmental damage in today’s rapidly changing world: nine planetary boundaries that quantify and delineate the safe operating space for industrial activities that, if transgressed, risk large-scale abrupt and irreversible environmental damage. 

The latest research indicates we have overshot six of the nine boundaries. We are eroding the planet’s ability to absorb the damage impacted by industry on the environment, so we must focus on what we can do to prevent tipping the balance further. 

For innovators and entrepreneurs, working within these boundaries – and even restoring them – isn’t just an environmental imperative; it’s key to building a thriving future. But it requires a transformative mindset shift, one that embraces planetary stewardship right from the beginning of the process. 80% of a product’s impact is baked-in at design, which means that from first concept to end product, innovation should be ​“sustainable, by design”.

What are the planetary boundaries?

The planetary boundaries are nine lines in the sand that we must not cross to sustain human life on Earth; nine vital indicators of the ecological ceiling for human activity and industry.

The nine planetary boundaries form the ecological ceiling within which industrial activities must operate. From the loss of biodiversity caused by deforestation to the release of greenhouse gases along supply chains accelerating climate change; these interconnected boundaries represent the thresholds beyond which the Earth’s ecosystems and ability to support human life (our economies and societies) are threatened. They encompass multiple Earth systems classified by scientists, including those at the Stockholm Resilience Centre and Earth Commission, as:

1. Climate change
2. Novel entities
3. Stratospheric ozone depletion 
4. Atmospheric aerosol loading 
5. Ocean acidification
6. Biogeochemical flows
7. Freshwater use
8. Land-system change
9. Biosphere integrity

Furthermore, these boundaries are interlinked. As one is transgressed, it can have multiplier effects on others, accelerating them towards catastrophic tipping points.

How the planetary boundaries inform our work

The planetary boundary approach is built upon hard data. It can harness the power of technology and innovation to facilitate solutions informed by planetary stewardship, address social divides, and ensure profitability and growth. 

To do this, we need economic models that operate within the planetary boundaries. One such model is Kate Raworth’s ​‘Doughnut Economics’, which is designed to balance the economy with climate action and social wellbeing. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) contain 12 socio-economic goals that are reflected in the social foundation of Doughnut Economics. 

The 2023 and 2024 Circularity Gap Reports from Deloitte and the Circle Economy Foundation highlight how adding circularity to products and processes through reducing, reusing, recycling and recovering materials and resources instead of dispensing with them can boost resource efficiency and restore planetary boundary overshoots by guiding economic decision-making towards regeneration and redistribution. 

Circular Economy principles are a key tenet of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and they inform how whole-systems-thinking approaches and life-cycle analysis (LCA) can be used to help build products that restore the planet’s biosphere. 

A LCA looks at the environmental impact of a product. However, most of the impact a product will have is determined at the design stage, and an LCA is typically conducted at the end of the process, often after product launch. At CPI, we’re investigating ways to incorporate planetary boundary thinking into a form of LCA early on, even during the design phase, which will require collaboration with academia and industry. It can be used to guide best practices such as the sourcing and use of resources or reducing water consumption. 

To truly define a product’s environmental impact, the challenge will be to determine what measurements to use and how they represent impact on the planetary boundaries. This must be done in such a way that individual companies have simple, practical and actionable methods to adapt their products and processes at local and global levels where most appropriate. 

The planetary boundaries principles are incorporated into CPI-led programmes across the High Value Manufacturing Catapult with the ambition to develop a Design for Sustainability and Circularity Framework Initiative, (DfSC). This embraces the planetary boundaries framework and the Doughnut Economics model and seeks to develop a product design framework with sustainability at its core. This is because, as mentioned above, 80% of a product’s environmental impact is determined during the design phase, so it is incredibly important to incorporate sustainable elements at this point. 

Phase I, completed in March 2024, established the underlying concepts for the framework. In Phase II, we want to develop and trial a simplified DfSC Framework with industry this year. One of the most important design concepts in the DfSC Framework is to view industrial supply chains as embedded in the ​“Earth System”, rather than viewing the environment as an externality that is not reflected in the market or product economics. 

CPI’s work, and that of our partners, is guided by our vision for sustainability and our membership in the UN Global Compact. Our focus on circular economy principles and the use of sustainable materials will also help address planetary boundary overshoots. By ensuring alignment with the framework’s goals going forward, we are actively taking steps to reduce our own impact. 

Pioneering projects taking on the planetary boundaries

Agriculture has a huge impact on the environment. Our own analysis shows that the damage of livestock meat farming affects every planetary boundary. It produces nearly 60% of all greenhouse gases related to food production. It also has wider implications beyond emissions, including but not limited to the impacts incurred on other planetary boundaries from animal feed production, land use, machinery and supply chains. When all these are considered, it might be more appropriate to think of the process as ​“mine to fork” rather than ​“farm to fork”. 

The same analysis shows that a product like cultivated meat can have environmental benefits and help address planetary boundary overshoots. This is why we support pioneering innovations such as 3D Bio-Tissues’ development of a sustainable and environmentally-friendly nutrient system for growing cultivated meat. CPI Enterprises has also invested in MarraBio to support the engineering of alternative proteins for cultivated meat production and other applications. 

We also need more sustainable ways of growing plant-based food. Replacing synthetic fertilisers and targeted pesticides with bio-based ones, like those developed by Azotic Technologies and EcoStack, respectively, can drastically reduce the environmental impact of arable agriculture. 

However, we need to implement these principles across all industries. To that end, circularity is being designed into packaging, textiles, and other materials. We also need to design HealthTech, medical, and wellness devices for sustainability, and we’re making a significant effort towards producing ​‘greener’ pharmaceuticals.

That’s why the ​“sustainable, by design” framework is so important. It will ensure that these products and processes have a sustainable future embedded in them from the very start.

A call to action

The message is clear: operating within planetary boundaries isn’t just an environmental imperative, it’s a recipe for long-term prosperity. Without consideration of those boundaries to restore the integrity of Earth’s biosphere, the Paris Agreement can no longer be met via decarbonisation alone. Human ingenuity is boundless, and for innovators and entrepreneurs, it’s an opportunity to unlock new markets, build resilient businesses, and contribute to a thriving global society. 

Companies that recognise this now will be better placed to be competitive in a world, not too far in the future. The planetary boundaries inform the foundation of ​“Vision 2050”, a framework for international systems transformation and industrial and business action developed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, where they envision more than 9 billion people could be living well within the planetary boundaries and with solid social foundations by 2050. 

We believe that innovation is a key driver of solutions that will make such a vision possible. This is what guides and emboldens the projects we work on, the partners we work with and the investments we make, all of which contribute to a healthier future for us all.