Environmental (E)

Framework: 9 Planetary Boundaries (Stockholm Resilience Centre)

About the Framework

The Planetary Boundaries framework defines safe operating space for humanity by identifying nine critical Earth system processes. Transgressing these boundaries increases risk of triggering abrupt or irreversible environmental changes.

Source: Rockström et al. (2009), updated Steffen et al. (2015), Richardson et al. (2023)

Primary Research: Stockholm Resilience Centre

The 9 Planetary Boundaries

1. Climate Change

Status: Boundary transgressed
Metric: Atmospheric CO₂ concentration, radiative forcing
Safe limit: 350 ppm CO₂ | Current: ~420 ppm

2. Biodiversity Loss

Status: Boundary transgressed
Metric: Extinction rate
Safe limit: <10 extinctions per million species-years | Current: 100-1000

3. Land-System Change

Status: Boundary transgressed
Metric: % of global land surface converted to cropland
Safe limit: 75% of original forest cover | Current: 62%

4. Freshwater Use

Status: Within boundary (global), transgressed regionally
Metric: km³/year of consumptive blue water use
Safe limit: 4,000 km³/year | Current: ~2,600 km³/year globally

5. Biogeochemical Flows

Status: Boundary transgressed
Metric: Nitrogen/phosphorus flows to biosphere
Safe limit: 62 Tg N/year | Current: ~150 Tg N/year

6. Ocean Acidification

Status: Within boundary
Metric: Aragonite saturation state
Safe limit: ≥80% of pre-industrial | Current: ~84%

7. Atmospheric Aerosol Loading

Status: Uncertain (regional transgression)
Metric: Aerosol optical depth
Safe limit: Regional thresholds vary

8. Stratospheric Ozone Depletion

Status: Within boundary (recovering)
Metric: Stratospheric ozone concentration
Safe limit: <5% reduction from pre-industrial | Current: recovering

9. Novel Entities

Status: Boundary transgressed
Metric: Concentration of synthetic chemicals, plastics, GMOs
Safe limit: Not yet quantified

Key Resources

Scientific Papers:

• Richardson et al. (2023) - Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries (Science Advances)
• Steffen et al. (2015) - Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet (Science)
• Rockström et al. (2009) - A safe operating space for humanity (Nature)

Interactive Dashboard:

• Stockholm Resilience Centre Planetary Boundaries

Book Resources

From ESG implementation guides:

• Carbon Accounting in Practice — Chapter on Scope 1/2/3 emissions measurement
• Climate Risk Quantification in Practice — Physical and transition risk modeling
• Water Accounting in Practice — Water footprint methodology
• Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services Accounting — MSA, PDF, ecosystem service valuation
• Plastic Accounting in Practice — Novel entities measurement

Related Standards

• GHG Protocol — Climate Change
• TNFD — Biodiversity & Nature
• SBTi — Science-based emissions targets
• IFRS S2 — Climate disclosure

Environmental section curated by Ascent Partners Foundation | Framework: Stockholm Resilience Centre