From mandatory disclosure data to organisational decision-making guided by planetary boundaries

Abstract

Organisations currently lack operational methods to assess how their activities contribute to returning society to within Earth's safe operating space, considering that seven of the nine planetary boundaries are currently exceeded. Although the mandatory Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive of the European Union generates extensive compliance data, these disclosures remain disconnected from planetary boundary science. In this context, the study addresses two key knowledge gaps: (i) the methodological disconnect between mandatory sustainability reporting requirements and science-based environmental impact assessment frameworks, and (ii) the absence of implementation pathways in real organisational contexts. To bridge these gaps, an integrated framework was developed that exclusively uses mandatory European Sustainability Reporting Standards disclosure data as a starting point for an Absolute Environmental Sustainability Assessment following the Environmental Footprint Method. A case study focusing on the University of Coimbra demonstrates the framework. Results reveal significant environmental transgressions that are sensitive to the allocation principle applied. Under egalitarian allocation, impacts related to mineral depletion, land use, particulate matter, and climate change exceeded allocated capacity. Under the utilitarian allocation approach, the absolute magnitudes of exceedances decreased by about fourfold, while the ranking of the environmental problems remained the same. More than 88% of total environmental impacts originated from upstream value chain activities. This finding shifts sustainability priorities away from a narrow focus on operational efficiency towards procurement governance, particularly for infrastructure, equipment, food, and mobility. The study demonstrates that organisations already collecting compliance data possess the underlying data required for Absolute Environmental Sustainability Assessment, suggesting that an evolution in sustainability regulation, from transparency-based reporting towards absolute sustainability governance, is both technically achievable and operationally feasible.