IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/inecol/v25y2021i3p765-777.html

Absolute environmental sustainability assessment of a Danish utility company relative to the Planetary Boundaries

Author

Listed:
  • Morten W. Ryberg
  • Troels K. Bjerre
  • Per Henrik Nielsen
  • Michael Hauschild

Abstract

Increasing environmental pressure from production and consumption of products and services is starting to affect Earth System stability. Thus, the Planetary Boundaries framework introduced a set of absolute boundaries for keeping the Earth System stable and delimiting a safe operating space for humanity. The sum of environmental pressures associated with human activities should not exceed the safe operating space. This includes utility companies whose activities relate to supply of water and treatment of waste‐ and stormwater. This study conducted an absolute environmental sustainability assessment (AESA) of a Danish utility company to evaluate if it could be considered absolutely sustainable relative to an assigned share of the safe operating space (SoSOS). The AESA evaluated the company's impacts relative to an assigned share of the Planetary Boundaries and relative to specific local boundaries for nitrogen and phosphorous emissions. Results showed that the assigned SoSOS was exceeded for 10 of 18 impact categories, for example, climate related boundaries were exceeded by up to a factor 7.8 while local nitrogen and phosphorus boundaries were exceeded by ca. a factor 16. The AESA can indicate to which degree the company exceeds its assigned SoSOS for certain impact categories and the processes and life‐cycle stages to focus on to become absolutely sustainable. This information is crucial for deriving specific impact reduction targets as part of environmental strategies for companies to become sustainable in an absolute sense.

Suggested Citation

  • Morten W. Ryberg & Troels K. Bjerre & Per Henrik Nielsen & Michael Hauschild, 2021. "Absolute environmental sustainability assessment of a Danish utility company relative to the Planetary Boundaries," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(3), pages 765-777, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:inecol:v:25:y:2021:i:3:p:765-777
    DOI: 10.1111/jiec.13075
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13075
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jiec.13075?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chanjief Chandrakumar & Sarah J. McLaren & Nihal P. Jayamaha & Thiagarajah Ramilan, 2019. "Absolute Sustainability‐Based Life Cycle Assessment: A Benchmarking Approach to Operate Agri‐food Systems within the 2°C Global Carbon Budget," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 23(4), pages 906-917, August.
    2. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    3. Gallego, Alejandro & Hospido, Almudena & Moreira, Maria Teresa & Feijoo, Gumersindo, 2008. "Environmental performance of wastewater treatment plants for small populations," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 52(6), pages 931-940.
    4. Johan Rockström & Will Steffen & Kevin Noone & Åsa Persson & F. Stuart Chapin & Eric F. Lambin & Timothy M. Lenton & Marten Scheffer & Carl Folke & Hans Joachim Schellnhuber & Björn Nykvist & Cynthia , 2009. "A safe operating space for humanity," Nature, Nature, vol. 461(7263), pages 472-475, September.
    5. Anastasia Wolff & Natacha Gondran & Christian Brodhag, 2017. "Detecting unsustainable pressures exerted on biodiversity by a company. Application to the food portfolio of a retailer," Post-Print emse-01575571, HAL.
    6. Kai Fang & Reinout Heijungs & Zheng Duan & Geert R. De Snoo, 2015. "The Environmental Sustainability of Nations: Benchmarking the Carbon, Water and Land Footprints against Allocated Planetary Boundaries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(8), pages 1-21, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xuemei Bai & Syezlin Hasan & Lauren Seaby Andersen & Anders Bjørn & Şiir Kilkiş & Daniel Ospina & Jianguo Liu & Sarah E. Cornell & Oscar Sabag Muñoz & Ariane Bremond & Beatrice Crona & Fabrice DeClerc, 2024. "Translating Earth system boundaries for cities and businesses," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 7(2), pages 108-119, February.
    2. He, Jianjian & Zhang, Pengyan & Lu, Xi, 2025. "The risk-based environmental footprints and sustainability deficits of nations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    3. Marvin Bachmann & Christian Zibunas & Jan Hartmann & Victor Tulus & Sangwon Suh & Gonzalo Guillén-Gosálbez & André Bardow, 2023. "Towards circular plastics within planetary boundaries," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 6(5), pages 599-610, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Filipa Correia & Philipp Erfruth & Julie Bryhn, 2018. "The 2030 Agenda: The roadmap to GlobALLizaton," Working Papers 156, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    2. Sala, Serenella & Ciuffo, Biagio & Nijkamp, Peter, 2015. "A systemic framework for sustainability assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 314-325.
    3. Ribas, Aline & Lucena, André F.P. & Schaeffer, Roberto, 2017. "Bridging the energy divide and securing higher collective well-being in a climate-constrained world," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 435-450.
    4. Ronja Teschner & Jessica Ruppen & Basil Bornemann & Rony Emmenegger & Lucía Aguirre Sánchez, 2021. "Mapping Sustainable Diets: A Comparison of Sustainability References in Dietary Guidelines of Swiss Food Governance Actors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, November.
    5. Mohammad Fazle Rabbi, 2025. "A Dynamic Systems Approach to Integrated Sustainability: Synthesizing Theory and Modeling Through the Synergistic Resilience Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-23, May.
    6. Jean-François Ruault & Alice Dupré La Tour & André Evette & Sandrine Allain & Jean-Marc Callois, 2022. "A biodiversity-employment framework to protect biodiversity," Post-Print hal-03365820, HAL.
    7. S. Nazrul Islam & Kenneth Iversen, 2018. "From “Structural Change” to “Transformative Change”: Rationale and Implications," Working Papers 155, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    8. Klauer, Bernd & Bartkowski, Bartosz & Manstetten, Reiner & Petersen, Thomas, 2017. "Sustainability as a Fair Bequest: An Evaluation Challenge," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 136-143.
    9. Child, Michael & Koskinen, Otto & Linnanen, Lassi & Breyer, Christian, 2018. "Sustainability guardrails for energy scenarios of the global energy transition," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 321-334.
    10. Korhonen, Jouni & Honkasalo, Antero & Seppälä, Jyri, 2018. "Circular Economy: The Concept and its Limitations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 37-46.
    11. Suárez-Eiroa, Brais & Fernández, Emilio & Soto-Oñate, David & Ovejero-Campos, Aida & Urbieta, Pablo & Méndez, Gonzalo, 2022. "A framework to allocate responsibilities of the global environmental concerns: A case study in Spain involving regions, municipalities, productive sectors, industrial parks, and companies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    12. Kristin Linnerud & Erling Holden & Morten Simonsen, 2021. "Closing the sustainable development gap: A global study of goal interactions," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(4), pages 738-753, July.
    13. Mia Heide & Michael Z. Hauschild & Morten Ryberg, 2023. "Reflecting the importance of human needs fulfilment in absolute sustainability assessments: Development of a sharing principle," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(4), pages 1151-1164, August.
    14. Biermann, Frank, 2012. "Planetary boundaries and earth system governance: Exploring the links," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 4-9.
    15. Jóhannesson, S.E. & Davíðsdóttir, B. & Heinonen, J.T., 2018. "Standard Ecological Footprint Method for Small, Highly Specialized Economies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 370-380.
    16. Vinnari, Markus & Tapio, Petri, 2012. "Sustainability of diets: From concepts to governance," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 46-54.
    17. Aneta Parsonsova & Ivo Machar, 2021. "National Limits of Sustainability: The Czech Republic’s CO 2 Emissions in the Perspective of Planetary Boundaries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-16, February.
    18. Ferng, Jiun-Jiun, 2014. "Nested open systems: An important concept for applying ecological footprint analysis to sustainable development assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 105-111.
    19. Jeroen B. Guinée & Arjan de Koning & Reinout Heijungs, 2022. "Life cycle assessment‐based Absolute Environmental Sustainability Assessment is also relative," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(3), pages 673-682, June.
    20. Liobikiene, Genovaite & Chen, Xueli & Streimikiene, Dalia & Balezentis, Tomas, 2020. "The trends in bioeconomy development in the European Union: Exploiting capacity and productivity measures based on the land footprint approach," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:inecol:v:25:y:2021:i:3:p:765-777. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1088-1980 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.