Earth Overshoot Day: Save the Date to Save the Planet

Humanity is currently using nature 1.7 times faster than our planet’s ecosystems can regenerate. On August 1, humanity will have used nature’s resource budget for the entire year, according to Global Footprint Network, an international research organization that has pioneered the Ecological Footprint resource accounting metric. Since the world went into ecological overshoot in the 1970s, D-day of August 1 this year will be the earliest.

Although 86 percent of the world’s population lives in a country with an ecological deficit, the latest national Ecological Footprint data reveals some encouraging signs for moving back Earth Overshoot Day. And as the Earth’s resources are finite, operating in this constrained reality requires BOLD IDEAS, and leading companies are rising to the challenge by managing natural resources differently, measuring them more accurately, and developing products and processes that use them more efficiently.

Global Footprint Network will be hosting a variety of events to mark this day - a video in Time Square New York, a press conference in Berlin, a documentary film in Rio de Janerio and a webinar hosted by Schneider Electric. The webinar will showcase a new type of business thinking to ensure sustained growth that balances productivity and profitability with the planet and its people. Companies will hear inspiring examples and learn concrete strategies to take action in their own operations. Mathis Wackernagel, CEO, Global Footprint Network and Xavier Houot, SVP Environment, Safety, & Real Estate, Schneider Electric will be the speakers of this webinar.

Register for the Living with Finite Resources: Strategies for Sustainable Resource Utilization webinar to find out how you can contribute to move the date.