In the light of increasing human pressures on the Earth system, the issue of sharing in the face of scarcity is more pressing than ever. The planetary boundary framework identifies and quantifies nine environmental boundaries and corresponding human pressures. However, when aiming to make the concept operational for decision support it is unclear how this safe operating space (SOS) within each of the planetary boundaries should be shared. This study proposes a two‐step approach, where the operating space is first downscaled to the individual level using ethical allocation principles and next scaled up to a higher organizational level using different upscaling methods. For the downscaling, three allocation principles are demonstrated: egalitarian (equal per capita); grandfathering (proportional to current share of the total impacts); and ability to pay (proportional to economic activity). For upscaling from the individual level final consumption expenditure is used as a proxy for the priority that the individual gives to the product or sector. In an alternative upscaling approach, an additional upscaling factor is based on the eco‐efficiency (ratio between turnover and environmental impact) of the product or sector. A demonstration of the method's application is given by applying the framework to two of the planetary boundaries, climate change and biogeochemical flows, with the Danish, Indian and global dairy sectors as cases. It is demonstrated how the choices of allocation and upscaling approaches influence the results differently in the three cases. The developed framework is shown to support an informed and transparent selection of allocation principles and upscaling methods and it provides a step toward standardization of distributing the SOS in absolute environmental sustainability assessments.

中文翻译：

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共享安全的操作空间：探索道德分配原则，以操作地球边界并评估个人和工业部门级别的绝对可持续性

鉴于人类对地球系统的压力越来越大，面对稀缺的分享问题比以往任何时候都更加紧迫。行星边界框架识别并量化了9个环境边界和相应的人类压力。但是，当旨在使该概念可用于决策支持时，尚不清楚应如何共享每个行星边界内的安全操作空间（SOS）。本研究提出了一种分两步走的方法，其中首先使用道德分配原则将经营空间缩小到个人级别，然后使用不同的扩大方法将业务空间扩大到更高的组织级别。为了降低规模，展示了三个分配原则：平均主义（人均）；祖父（与总影响的当前比例成正比）；和支付能力（与经济活动成正比）。为了从个人层面进行升级，最终消费支出将用作个人对产品或行业给予优先级的代理。在替代升级方法中，附加的升级因子是基于产品或行业的生态效率（营业额与环境影响之间的比率）。通过将该框架应用于两个行星边界（气候变化和生物地球化学流），以丹麦，印度和全球乳业为例，对该方法的应用进行了演示。证明了在三种情况下分配和升迁方法的选择如何不同地影响结果。