<p>The study examines how human capital (HC) and technological progress (TFP) influence ecological sustainability in India within the load capacity factor (LCF) framework, while accounting for consumption of renewable energy (RE) and economic growth during the period 1990–2024. LCF is embraced as a holistic measure because it includes both ecological demand and biocapacity. ADF and Zivot-Andrews unit root tests were used in the analysis to account for structural breaks, while the Bayer–Hanck combined cointegration test and ARDL bounds tests were used to verify the long-run equilibrium relationship among the variables. Short and long-run dynamics were estimated by the ARDL model, and DOLS was used to test robustness and VECM Granger causality. The results indicate that human capital enhances ecological sustainability by increasing the load capacity factor, which may be due to scale, technique, composition effects, and improved environmental awareness. On the contrary, technological advancement enhances economic growth, but does not guarantee environmental sustainability; instead, productivity gains are being obtained at the expense of ecological imbalance, resulting in a deficit in the load capacity factor. Renewable energy has a positive influence on LCF in both the short and long-run. Moreover, there is a nonlinear relationship between economic growth and LCF, which upholds the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. The implication of this research paper is valuable to policy makers as it incorporates LCF as an inclusive sustainability indicator and offers evidence on the contrasting roles of human capital and technological progress in India within a robust time-series framework.</p>