GENEVA, SWITZERLAND — This year’s Earth Overshoot Day lands on August 1^st, according to calculations by Global Footprint Network. This means from January 1 until this day, humanity has demanded as much from nature as the planet’s ecosystems can renew in the entire year.

Earth Overshoot Day reminds us that the persistence of overshoot, now for over half a century, has led to a massive decline in biodiversity, excess greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and heightened competition for food and energy. These symptoms are becoming more prominent with unusual heat waves, heavy rains, forest fires, droughts, and floods. 2023 has been another year of extremes.

Given a predictable future of more climate change and resource constraints, resource security is turning into an essential parameter of lasting prosperity. This is true for countries, cities, or companies. There is no advantage in waiting for international agreements. Rather, it is in the interest of every city, company, or country to step up and protect its own ability to operate in the future.

Indeed, a new generation of circular-economy-focused companies have already recognized that: They operate while also reducing overshoot. Expanding such companies, means global overshoot goes down.

“Enabling circular solutions gives companies the best chance to succeed in the predictable future” says Dr. David Lin, Chief Science Officer of Global Footprint Network. “There are many examples that demonstrate how. They symbolize the Power of Possibility”.

Our work with Interzero, a waste recycling, exemplifies this: they close various material or product loops, and providing sorting and recycling of large waste streams, including plastics, Interzero reduces society’s dependence on virgin resources. Based on Interzero’s data Global Footprint Network’s researchers calculated that for every annual Euro value add the company generates with their zero waste solutions, global overshoot shrinks by over 32 global square meters. This contrasts starkly with the 2.1 global square meters of overshoot added for every annual US dollar generated by the global economy. That means, per Euro, Interzero gives 15 times more back to our planet than the global economy takes. Without Interzero, Earth Overshoot Day would be 7 minutes and 12 seconds earlier. Its impact is therefore measurable even on a global scale.

“Closed-loop solutions are climate solutions,” says Sebastiaan Krol, CEO Interzero Circular Solutions. “However, to increase the volume of valuable raw materials we can manage in the loop, such theory needs to be put into actual practice. I’m proud to say we are doing exactly this for more and more products in a wide range of industries. But we’re not resting on our laurels: we merely see these 7 minutes and 12 seconds as a milestone on our journey to replace the largely linear ways of doing business with a truly circular economy,” Krol continues.

Companies who can produce valuable goods and services while also reducing global overshoot are naturally better positioned for the predictable future of climate change and resource constraints. The likelihood that such businesses will be needed, and that they therefore remain valuable, is higher than for those businesses who ignore those global trends.

Additional Resources:

• Power of Possibility examples
• Overshoot impact of companies: How to assess
• Whitepaper on one planet prosperity
• Overshoot: is there good news?

Media contacts

Global Footprint Network
media@footprintnetwork.org

Sybilla Merian, Sustainability manager, Interzero
sybilla.merian@interzero.de