Sufficiency-based absolute sustainability position assessment for passenger vehicles

As environmental pressure intensifies globally, there is a growing demand for robust methods to evaluate whether products and services’ environmental performance align with global sustainability goals. The Absolute Environmental Sustainability Assessment (AESA) method addresses the challenge of operationalising absolute environmental sustainability by allocating the Safe Operating Space (SOS) across scales, yet current approaches face challenges related to allocation transparency, interpretability, and limited consideration of consumption patterns. This research introduces the concept of Absolute Sustainability Position (ASP) to assess whether a product or service operates within its fair share of Earth’s ecological capacity. Building on the sufficiency-based SOS sharing principle, ASP compares a product’s life cycle environmental impact against its allocated SOS applying Decent Living Standards as allocation rule. This method advances existing AESA approaches by integrating scenario-based consumption modelling and presenting outcomes in a position-based format that clarifies both the magnitude and direction of sustainability transgression. The method is demonstrated with an electric vehicle case study under multiple consumption scenarios. Results show that under current consumption patterns, individual EV mobility exceeds its allocated SOS, indicating that electrification alone is not sufficient to ensure absolute sustainability in mobility sector. A comparison with European Union (EU) passenger transportation decarbonisation targets highlights the misalignment between current policy goals, consumption patterns, and global ecological limits. However, shared mobility significantly improves the results, highlighting the importance of systematic consumption behavioural change.