GRIDS: An integrated sustainability framework for the net-zero transition

Abstract

Net zero is not a single-sector decarbonisation problem: it spans energy, resource circularity, biodiversity, climate-aligned finance and supply-chain governance, and interventions in one domain register on the others. The review responds to a specific gap: these determinants are examined in separate literatures whose interactions are asserted rather than modelled. Following PRISMA 2020 conventions, this review consolidates twenty-four determinants into the GRIDS framework, comprising Governance and capital allocation, Resource circularity, Infrastructure and energy transition, Digitally enabled integration, and Stewardship of natural capital; nests them in eight validated clusters; and models their interdependence rather than asserting it. Fifty-three studies anchor the digital domain in oil and gas. A directed cross-impact matrix over the clusters is examined through MICMAC, interpretive structural modelling and perturbation simulation, as complementary lenses on one model rather than independent tests. Digital measurement and traceability are the only cluster whose independent classification survives boundary perturbation: it sits alone at the hierarchy's base, emitting strong links to six of the seven other clusters and receiving none, inverting the conventional treatment of digital tools as a service function. Ecological state and energy infrastructure jointly absorb perturbation from across the system, reported as a pair rather than ranked. The implication is a sequence: measurement layer first, energy build-out screened hardest, supply-chain and municipal outcomes last. The matrix is author-coded under a stated admissibility rule, not independently elicited, so these results are offered as falsifiable propositions released for re-elicitation. Priority gaps concern cross-domain metrics harmonisation, developing-economy applicability and AI governance.