Keynote speaker at 12th International Conference on Industrial Ecology (ISIE2025) “Translating planetary and earth system boundaries for cities and businesses”

Distinguished Professor and ARC Laureate Fellow Xuemei Bai will be presenting as a key note speaker at the 12th International Conference on Industrial Ecology (ISIE2025) on July 1st at the Stephen Riady Centre, National University of Singapore. Xuemei’s talk titled “Translating planetary and earth system boundaries for cities and businesses” will explore how to translate Planetary Boundaries and Safe and Just Earth System Boundaries for actors across different scales.

Abstract

Since its introduction in 2009, the Planetary Boundary (PB) framework has been used to assess the upper limits of human-induced impacts on the Earth system without compromising critical earth system functions. Building on and extending the PB framework, the Earth Commission has integrated justice perspectives into Earth system sciences, proposing Safe and Just Earth System Boundaries (S&J ESBs) for five of the nine PB domains. For these planetary-level boundaries to be meaningful in practice, they must be connected to and comprehensible for actors at all levels, enabling them to guide concrete actions.

This talk explores how to translate PBs and S&J ESBs for actors across different scales-- particularly cities and businesses—thereby mobilizing not only national but also critical subnational actors. Such translation is inherently challenging, as it involves a complex process encompassing multiple steps, normative judgements, and uncertainties. There is a strong demand from both research and practice for the development of scientifically robust, transparent, and just principles and method of translation.

Drawing on recent publications and ongoing work within the Earth Commission’s Translation, Actors and Agency workstream, this talk will synthesizes existing literature to identify and characterize common sharing approaches, put forward ten principles of translation, and outline an initial protocol for translation. It will also examine the remaining scientific and methodological challenges of cross scale translation and explore how the industrial ecology community can contribute to addressing them.

Professor Bai’s trip has been supported by the National University of Singapore and the ISIE.

Event Summary

Date: July 1st 2025

Time: 9:30am - 10:30am

Location: Stephen Riady Centre, National University of Singapore

Registration: Yes, conference registration necessary