Sustainability is strategy
Professor Johan Rockström, a leading expert on global sustainability, met with Bühler CTO Ian Roberts at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research to discuss the Planetary Boundaries framework. As its architect, Rockström highlights the urgent need for industry to operate within Earth’s safe limits, emphasizing that sustainability is now key to resilience, competitiveness, and long-term success.
Ian Roberts, June 2025
Professor Johan Rockström: The Planetary Boundaries framework was an inevitable logical step in scientific progress because our understanding of three areas has advanced in an extraordinary way over the past 30 years, changing our comprehension of the complexity and fragility of the Earth’s systems.
First is the Anthropocene – the exponential rise of human pressures on the planet since the 1950s. For millennia, human impacts were relatively linear. Then, with the Great Acceleration of population growth and fossil fuel utilization, human activity became a dominant force. We’ve essentially become a geological force of change, shaping the planet's future trajectory.
Second is paleoclimatic research. Ice core data shows the Holocene – a warm, stable interglacial period – has been the cradle of civilization. It maintained a remarkably narrow temperature range for 10,000 years. This stability allowed us to develop agriculture, build societies, and enjoy the predictability that underpins modern life. It’s clear now: We want to keep the planet as close as possible to a Holocene-like state.
Third, we now understand that Earth is a complex, self-regulating geophysical system with intricate interactions and feedbacks. Push these systems too far and, instead of stabilizing the planet through dampening feedbacks that counterbalance human pressures, they can flip, creating self-amplifying loops that accelerate global temperature increases, degrade ecosystems, and weaken the planet’s resilience. These are tipping points, where small changes trigger large, potentially irreversible impacts.
When you combine these insights, it leads naturally to the question: Can we define a safe operating space that avoids destabilizing the system? That’s the basis of the Planetary Boundaries.
We are, in fact, a geological force of change on planet Earth. We’re hitting the hardwired biophysical processes that regulate the functioning of the whole system. The Holocene is our Garden of Eden, and tipping points are real. When you bring all of this together, two questions arise quite naturally: Are we putting the planet at risk? And if we know what to measure against, can we use tipping points as evidence to define a safe operating space that avoids irreversible damage to the system?
Rockström: Once we had the scientific evidence that the Holocene is our reference point – and that Earth has tipping points – we asked: What are the key environmental processes that regulate the stability and resilience of the planet? And can we define measurable thresholds for each?
That led us to identify nine Planetary Boundaries. For each, we define control variables – quantifiable indicators that tell us whether we are operating in a safe zone. The safe zone is where there’s a high likelihood of staying in a Holocene-like state. Once we cross a boundary, we enter a zone of increasing risk. Go too far, and you may cause irreversible shifts. Over the past 15 years, the framework has been scrutinized and refined. We’ve now published more than 1,500 peer-reviewed papers on this.
And today, we can say with high scientific confidence that six of the nine boundaries have already been transgressed. That’s alarming. But it’s also empowering, because it shows we can measure the planet’s health – and we know what it takes to get back into the safe zone.
Rockström: Even if we focused only on climate, we’d fail unless we take a full Earth system approach. There are nine boundaries. Climate change, the stratospheric ozone layer, and ocean acidification are what I call the “big three” – they have tipping points at planetary scale.
Then there are four biosphere boundaries: biodiversity, land use, freshwater, and nutrient cycles. These are like the planet’s operating system. Disrupting them weakens resilience and accelerates climate risks. For example, even if we phase out fossil fuels, we’d still breach climate targets if we continue degrading forests and ecosystems.
Rockström: That’s where it becomes even more systemic. The eighth boundary is what we call “aerosol loading.” It refers to air pollutants – like sulfates and nitrates – that affect not only human health but also cloud formation and the planet’s energy balance. It’s a paradox: air pollution harms people, but some of it also cools the planet by reflecting solar radiation. As we reduce pollution – which is necessary – we lose that masking effect and warming accelerates. It shows how interlinked everything is.
The ninth is “novel entities” – human-made chemicals like microplastics, pesticides, and nuclear waste that don’t exist in nature. We’re seeing them accumulate in ecosystems globally. The challenge is, we don’t yet have clear thresholds. But we know they’re spreading fast, and that adds another layer of risk.
Together, these nine boundaries define the safe operating space for humanity. And what’s important is that this isn’t a list of environmental concerns – it is the list of the processes that we must be stewards of to have a stable planet. This is not about environmental protection or sustainability; this is about prosperity, equity, and security. This is about health.
Rockström: That’s exactly what we’re working on. With Earth observation satellites, AI, and big data, we’re designing a “mission control center” for planet Earth. It would provide a real-time diagnostic of how we’re doing across the nine boundaries and give us budgets we have to stay within. But the most exciting part is that we want to be able to have real-time updates showing where overshooting is happening, right down to specific regions or ecosystems.
The idea is to make this system actionable. We want it to serve not only as a global dashboard, but also as a decision-support tool. If you can track deforestation in the Amazon or nitrogen loading in Europe in near real time, you could intervene more intelligently – and much earlier. What’s more, once you quantify environmental limits, you also see who is using how much. This addresses the fair distribution of those budgets. Today, for example, some countries massively over-consume nitrogen, while others – often in the Global South – underuse it.
So, the system would not just guide action; it would help us distribute responsibility more justly.
Rockström: More than ever. In the midst of this challenging time, the framework is a science-based, neutral approach that can guide investments and decisions for the global economy. Today, we have succeeded in moving away from thinking of sustainability only as conservation and environmental protection. We must think of it as central to competitiveness, security, stability, and health.
The Planetary Boundaries define the conditions under which humanity can thrive safely on Earth. And they give us something we’ve never had before – a way to measure our progress, understand the risks we face, and course-correct when needed.
What’s encouraging is that every one of the nine boundaries already has some kind of international policy attached to it. We have the Montreal Protocol for the ozone layer, the Paris Agreement for climate, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and others addressing crucial aspects of planetary stewardship. The challenge is not lack of intent, it’s that we haven’t bent the curves yet. We now have the science, the tools, and the urgency to make that shift.
Rockström: First, if you see business benefits from sustainability, talk about them. When a decision improves your performance, attracts talent, opens new markets, or enhances resilience – communicate that clearly. We need more real-world examples that show sustainability is not a burden – it’s a competitive advantage.
Second, go beyond carbon. Many companies have made great progress on climate, but the science tells us that’s not enough. We need to manage the full set of planetary pressures: land use, biodiversity, materials, and water. You don’t need to tackle all nine boundaries at once, but you can start by addressing the ones most relevant to your value chain.
Third, be more public. I know that’s not always comfortable, but business leaders need to use their voices. This is not about being on the barricades. It’s about showing leadership in a time of uncertainty – defending the path away from planet-damaging value chains and proving that this is beneficial. That is fundamental, for me, right now.
Professor Johan Rockström is Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Professor in Earth System Science at the University of Potsdam. Johan Rockström is an internationally recognized scientist on global sustainability and Earth resilience. He led the development of the Planetary Boundaries framework for human development in the current era of rapid global change. He is deeply involved in research on the future trajectory of the Anthropocene and tipping points in the Earth system. With more than 25 years’ experience in applied water research in tropical regions, he is also a leading scientist on global water resources.
Gupfenstrasse 5
Uzwil
9240
Switzerland
