Ecological foundations for corporate sustainability from a planetary boundaries and modern corporate capitalism perspective

Abstract

The world’s natural resources and ecosystems have been and continue to be degraded at an alarming level. This is why resource scarcity is the most important obstacle to corporate sustainability and the most important agenda item for companies. Sustainability for companies requires stopping biodiversity loss and ecosystem decline, reducing climate change and improving environmental conditions more generally. However, the business plans and incentives to do this are currently very weak. The spiral in this regard is that although environmental problems are still seen as “externalities” in the current economic paradigm, nature continues to be degraded and undervalued instead of being seen as a basic natural capital that requires management and investment for the future survival of humanity. There are many resources and initiatives that provide advice and guidance to companies on specific actions, targets or metrics for more sustainable business decisions, but a significant number of them equate “less impact” with sustainability, rather than sustainability in the context of limited resources and natural capital. On the other hand, since they do not consider the Earth System as a holistic structure, they often focus on ecosystems and the environment at the local or regional level. It is an undeniable fact that a new and more sophisticated awareness is needed to understand which business actions are truly sustainable. In this way, it is inevitable to prioritize approaches that can offer very useful solutions that address various challenges, especially those related to the destabilization of the Earth System as a whole. We need to prepare strategies and action plans within the framework of Planetary Boundaries (PB) to guide actions, not only to improve ecosystems and biodiversity (our natural capital) at local and regional scales, but also to improve the planetary systems that govern the stability of the Earth System. Using the PB framework to inform corporate sustainability decisions, particularly in supply chains, will enable businesses to understand the macro-level implications of their impacts and help them focus on specific actions to address them.

The main objective of this study in this context is to review the ecological and systemic foundations for corporate sustainability with a new paradigm that is more holistic, integrative, ecological and empowering. and to ensure integration with environmental, social and governance (ESG). In this way, the value of the PB framework, along with its challenges and limitations is introduced. It can be demonstrated how the PB framework can be applied in a corporate context. Innovative approaches based on the PB framework is proposed and the next milestones for integrating companies into the PB framework development is identified.