Earth's Health Check: 7 of 9 Planetary Boundaries Breached, and Why We Can Still Turn It Round

Hey, thanks so much for listening. I would love to be able to help you more on what it is that you are listening to and why you're listening to, to me. If you could click on the link in the show notes, that would be awesome because it will help me define what it is that we should be talking about on this podcast. The planet just had its annual health check and the results are in. 7 of the 9 limits that keep Earth livable have now been breached. That's the headline for this year's Planetary Health Check. Published last week by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. Now, I know what that sounds, but stay with me because this isn't a doom episode. By the end of the next 10 minutes, I want you to know 3 things: what these boundaries actually are, which ones sit inside your business, and why one quiet success story gives us every reason to keep going. I'm Will Richardson, and this is Sustainability Solved by Will Richardson. So what the boundaries are? Let's start simple. The planetary boundaries are 9 physical and chemical limits. Together, they act as the planet's life support system. Scientists first set them back in 2009. Each one gets measured against conditions. before we started burning fossil fuels in earnest. So roughly the mid-1800s. The best way I've heard this explained comes from Katharine Richardson at the University of Copenhagen. No relation, sadly. She says it's like blood pressure. If your doctor tells you your blood pressure is high, that doesn't mean you're having a heart attack tomorrow. It means the risk is climbing and And it means now is the moment to do something about it. That's exactly how we should think about these boundaries. They're not on-off switches. They're dials. And right now, 7 of them are reading high. How we got to 7? When scientists did the first full assessment, they found 6 boundaries breached. Last year, we passed a 7th: ocean acidification. This year, there's something in the report that I think matters even more than the headline number. All 7 breached boundaries are now at their worst recorded levels. So it's not that we've crossed new lines this year, it's the ones we'd already crossed are getting worse. That's the bit worth sitting with. The number we all know: carbon. Let's take the one everyone's heard of. Carbon dioxide in our atmosphere hit a record 426 parts per million. To give that some meaning, before the Industrial Revolution, it was 280. Many scientists see 350 as the safe level, and we passed 350 in 1987. I was 12 that year. 3 years later, I gave my first talk on climate change. So that safe line went in my lifetime. And I'd guess in yours too. We felt that means what it means this summer with the heat waves right across Europe. That's not a future problem anymore. That's this year. The new one, our oceans. Now to the boundary we crossed most recently, ocean acidification. Here's how it works in plain terms. The ocean soaks up a share of the carbon dioxide we put into the air. That's helpful in one way, but it lowers the water's pH. More acidic water makes it harder for shellfish and corals to be— to build their shells. Over time, it can actually start to dissolve them. And this isn't some far-off science story. Here in Scotland, shellfish and salmon farming support coastal communities and share some of our best-known food exports. So if you run a food and beverage business that sources everything from the sea, ocean chemistry is now a supply chain question. It belongs in the same conversation as price, quality, and supply security. The boundaries inside our supply chains. There are 2 boundaries I want to pick out because they sit right inside the business we work with every day. The first is nitrogen and phosphorus. That's mainly fertilizer. When too much goes onto land, it washes out into rivers and seas and triggers toxic algae blooms. For food businesses, this is boundary Closest to home. And here's the encouraging part: the fixes are well understood. Precision fertilizer use, regenerative farming, genuine partnership with growers— these reduce the pressure on the boundary, and they usually bring input costs down too. That's one of my favorite things about this work. Climate action is both an obligation and an opportunity And nowhere shows that better than the farm gate. The second is what scientists call novel entities. In plain English, that's the chemicals and plastic we've introduced into nature. Things like PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals, building up in food chains. For food and beverage packaging, it is a part of the product. For anyone in media, marketing, and advertising, it's a A part of the brand promise printed on the back. Which brings us neatly on to claims. But I'll come back to that. The good news, and it is real. Here's the part I really want you to take away from this episode. So 2 boundaries are still intact: the ozone layer and aerosol pollution. The ozone layer is recovering. And it's recovering because of the Montreal Protocol, the international agreement that phased out the chemicals damaging it. Aerosol pollution has fallen too, partly thanks to cleaner fuel rules for global shipping. Think about what that means. We pushed one of these boundaries towards the edge, and then we pulled it back. We did that through agreement, regulation, and industry innovation. All working together. So we have a playbook. We've used it before. It works. Johan Rockström, the director of the Potsdam Institute, put it really well. He said, we do not have the luxury of time, but we do have the knowledge. And that's it, isn't it? The solutions already exist. What we need now is pace and scale. So what does business do with the news? This report landed in the middle of Climate Week in New York, and what happened that week tells us a lot about where the money and momentum are heading. 4 quick signals. One, China announced its first-ever absolute emissions target. Up to now, China's targets have been about intensity. Meaning emissions per unit of economic growth. This new target is cut in the total from its peak. That matters because absolute cuts are what actually brings that 426 number down. And if you've got Chinese manufacturing in your Scope 3, supplier decarbonization there just got policy backing. 2, the green premium became a security premium. Nuclear, geothermal, critical minerals, and domestic manufacturing were all pitched as energy security, not climate virtue. You might have mixed feelings about that framing. I'd say whatever the motive, that investment helps the very boundaries we're breaching. And it gives sustainability teams a language CFOs already speak. 3, green claims are under more scrutiny than ever. Demand for genuinely sustainable products is huge, and that's exactly why regulators and consumers are asking for proof. Here in the UK, the CMA can now fine businesses directly for misleading claims. For marketing teams and agencies, that's a risk, and it's also a chance to lead with evidence instead of adjectival 4. Carbon markets are quietly growing. Canada has developed a framework under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement— the part that lets countries trade emissions reductions across borders. It's not grabbing headlines, but it's moving. And for any business buying credits, quality and integrity remain the questions to ask first. Bringing it down to earth, supplier data. Now, underneath all these big headlines, there's a much quieter question that keeps coming up in practitioner question conversations. How do sustainability teams actually get reliable Scope 3 data from their suppliers? It matters here because so many of these boundaries the fertilizer, the plastics, the ocean sourcing— live in supply chains. Supplier data is how a business actually sees its pressure on them. The good news is you don't need perfect data to start. Begin with the suppliers who make up most of your footprint. Accept spend-based estimates as a first step, then build towards real supplier numbers over time. In line with the GHG Protocol. That's how we help clients at 51 to Carbon Zero turn a headline like this one into a plan they can act on. So let's go back to that blood pressure reading. The checkup shows high numbers. But we also know what the treatment looks like. Because we've already used it on the ozone layer. And the money, the policy, and the business case are all moving in the right direction. Here's my ask for you. Pick the boundary that sits closest to your business. For food, that's probably nutrients or ocean chemistry. For marketing and media, it's chemicals, packaging, and the claims you make about them. Then ask your team one simple question. What do we measure against it today? That single conversation is where real progress starts. Thanks to Scientific American for their excellent coverage of the Planetary Health Check, which you'll find linked in the show notes. If this episode was useful, subscribe, share it with a colleague who needs to hear it. Let me know which boundary sits closest to your business. I read every message. I'm Will Richardson. I'll see you next time.

Grab free access to Will's Substack while it lasts! Every week we pull together the top sustainability stories from dozens of trusted sources. Then he breaks down the big issues facing business right now in plain, practical terms. Link in the description.