Can a product be sustainable?

Written by Anders Koefoed, Co-founder and Head of Data

Can a product be sustainable?

When will our efforts of reducing environmental effects be enough? That question have been asked by many product producing companies who may have gone to great lengths in cutting down energy consumption, purchasing renewable energy, turned the car fleet electric and rewilded the lawns around the company.

Most people will answer that no product alone can be sustainable but only the person consuming can be sustainable. The argument behind is that most of us consume too many products and therefore have an unsustainable lifestyle. So it is not only the individual product alone that decides sustainability but more the number of products one consume and therefore sustainability is a more complex calculation.

But is that still true?

Not anymore if Centre for Absolute Sustainability at the Danish Technical University are to decide. Their researchers have for the last 10 years developed a new method to measure sustainability and it can decide whether a product or service is absolute sustainable or not.

Planetary Boundaries

The research builds on the new research by Stockholm Resilience Centre 16 years ago that one can define the limits of environmental load where the planet can still regenerate its natural ecosystems. These limits to what the Earth can sustain is called The Planetary Boundaries.

In 2009 Stockholm Resilience Centre identified 7 different environmental impacts which are threatening our life on Earth and 3 of the boundaries were already transgressed.
During the last 16 years they have identified 2 more boundaries giving a total of 9. Now 7 of these boundaries are crossed.
This development shows that our impact on the planet is quickly worsening so we need to act fast to get within the boundaries.
This is why the concept of Absolute Sustainability is so necessary because it shows how we can stay within boundaries and therefore also when we have reduced environmental emissions enough.

How does Absolute Sustainability downscale
the boundaries to product level?

They do it by allocating an “allowed share” of the safe operating space to individual products. There are several possibilities for downscaling the boundary. If a product is for personal use then one accepted method is to divide the boundary limit with the number of inhabitants in the world. Hereby each person on the planet is assigned a threshold for how much their consumption is allowed to damage.
From there on one should again downscale to the product level. There are various methods to do that depending on what kind of product it is and what it provides. In the end one arrives to a number. For climate impact it will be an amount of CO2eq which is within the safe operating space of this product.

Then the boundary threshold is compared with the emission calculated through classical LCA. If this emission is lower than the threshold derived from the planetary boundaries then the product is environmentally sustainable.

An illustration of the different phases of this exercise is shown to the right starting with performing the LCA.

Then scaling down the planetary boundaries to the safe operating space for a product.

Ending with comparing the results by dividing the safe operating space with the LCA result.
If this fraction becomes smaller than 1 then the product is absolute sustainable – and the smaller the fraction the more sustainable it is.

When comparing results it is important to remember that a product cannot be called environmentally sustainable if only one or a few of the planetary boundaries are smaller than the safe operating space. All of the 9 boundaries have to lie within the safe operating space of the product.

An example of an Absolute Sustainability calculation
for the boundary Climate Change

This machine center made by the Chinese company CHMTI produces spur and helical cylindrical gears mostly used in the car manufacturing industry. (Weight 3,5 tons, 7,5kW peak power, lifespan 10 years).

The planetary boundary for Climate Change in 2024:

The carrying capacity of the Earth is 8,3Gt CO2eq

It was chosen to base the allocations of the Earths carrying capacity on the method “Grandfathering” of the Machine Tool Industry which is responsible for 5% of the total climate emissions. Most of these emitted during its use phase. That makes this industry’s safe operating space 415.000Mt CO2eq.

The allocation from industry level to company level is again based on “Grandfathering” as the company CHMTI emitted 6.2Mt CO2eq in 2024, which is the equivalent of 1,5%.

The allocation from company level to product level is based on “Economic value” of the machine which constitutes 0,0063% of CHMTI’s revenue in 2024.

From the above the safe operating space (SOS) for the machine center is then calculated as: 5% x 1,5% x 0,0063% x 8,3 Gt CO2eq = 394ton CO2eq

Why is Absolute Sustainability so engaging and optimistic?

Absolute Sustainability offers a clear, science-based framework that defines tangible, absolute limits for environmental impact, rather than vague or relative goals. This approach creates hope by setting achievable thresholds that companies, products, and societies can measure themselves against.

This approach encourages innovation, offers tangible targets, and promotes system-wide progress toward a sustainable future. This is also why the European Commission has endorsed the approach by co-writing the worlds first guidance on how to apply an absolute environmental sustainability assessment. The finished guide is expected published in spring 2026.

The question is if the European Commission by engaging in this method wants to implement Absolute Sustainability as a part of future legislation? It sparks the hope that environmentally sustainable products one day not too far ahead will be the norm.

While this is still unclear, it raises hope that environmentally sustainable products may become the norm. Such claims, however, must be supported by solid documentation and verified by an independent third party to ensure compliance and avoid misleading consumers.