At least it’s not Friday the 13^th—but on March 13, the U.S. will reach its Overshoot Day for the year 2025.

What is this Overshoot Day?

If everyone in the world lived like U.S. residents, humanity would have exhausted its annual ecological budget by March 13. For the remainder of the year, we would be depleting the planet’s resources faster than they can regenerate. March 13 is one of the earliest dates on the Overshoot Calendar, highlighting the disproportionate ecological footprint of the United States.

The U.S. is fortunate to be endowed with abundant regenerative resources—what we call biocapacity. Per person, it has more than twice the global average of these resources. Yet, despite this wealth, U.S. demand still surpasses what its ecosystems can sustainably provide. At its current rate of consumption, the country would deplete its entire annual regenerative resource budget by the end of June—within just six months. This is its Deficit Day. It’s important to note that some of this biocapacity is also essential for sustaining wildlife.

Both Country Overshoot Day and Deficit Day are critical because they reveal different facets of the same story: our relationship with the regenerative resources that underpin all economic activity. The planet’s regenerative capacity defines the limits of sustainable consumption—whether it’s food, fiber, timber, or even fossil fuels. Fossil fuel use, for instance, is constrained not by the amount of oil or coal remaining underground, but by the biosphere’s ability to absorb carbon emissions. Similarly, mining is limited not by the availability of minerals, but by how much of the biosphere we are willing to sacrifice for extraction and processing.

Why does it matter?

Ignoring resource security and pretending ecological overshoot doesn’t exist leads to self-defeating decisions. It channels investments into assets that will have little utility—and therefore little value—in the future we can already foresee.

This makes this year’s U.S. Overshoot Day particularly significant. Like most nations, the U.S. lacks robust resource accounting systems. Compounding this issue, the current administration is actively dismantling the scientific capacity of government agencies tasked with tracking climate and resource trends. At the same time, it is discouraging a transition away from fossil fuel dependence, further undermining the country’s long-term resilience. Clinging to resources with a shrinking future means investing in infrastructure that will become increasingly obsolete in a world shaped by climate change and resource constraints.

Ironically, the administration claims to prioritize environmental quality. In his March 4 speech to Congress, the president emphasized his commitment to improving air and water quality. Yet, simultaneously, his administration has proposed a 65% budget cut to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the very body responsible for safeguarding air and water. Additionally, there is a strong push to roll back environmental regulations, many of which are designed to protect public health and ecosystems. The administration has also been vocal about its support for fossil fuels and its resistance to renewable energy development.

What can you do?

Ultimately, the winners in a future shaped by climate change and resource constraints will be those who recognize the reality of these challenges and strategically direct their investments toward opportunities that will retain long-term value. This approach not only provides a roadmap for sustained prosperity but favors those who proactively prepare for the predictable shifts ahead.

Recognizing the realities of climate change and resource constraints is therefore not pessimistic—it’s empowering. With the right tools and mindset, we can build a robust and thriving future. As we’ve outlined through our “Power of Possibility” platform, the greatest economic opportunities lie with those ventures that create value while reducing global overshoot.

Here’s what you can do: Whenever you get caught in a conversation about climate change or the futility of environmental action, try this. Turn it into an inquiry. Ask your counterparts what kind of assets they believe are more likely to gain in value, and examine with them how that outcome will that be shaped by the trends of more climate change and increasing resource constraints. In other words, as cities, companies and countries invest in their development, which bets are more likely to be successful?

The good news is that we do not need to wait for others. Each household, city, company, or country can choose their own bets.

What’s not to like? Let’s build a thriving future.

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In reality, these companies present a strong value proposition, as failing to prepare for a predictable future of climate change and resource constraints is against their self-interest. Additionally, a company’s contribution to global overshoot is measurable. After three decades of providing robust country overshoot data, a similar approach is now needed for companies.

The key question is: How much does a company reduce global overshoot per million dollars market capitalization? In other words, if the company did not exist, where would global overshoot stand per million dollars market capitalization?

For most companies, due to their existence, global overshoot increases, and hence Earth Overshoot Day arrives sooner. But some companies—circular businesses—reduce global overshoot as they grow. Here is one example. If you want to get even more inspiration, check out the Power of Possibility with over 100 examples.

This is also relevant to investors. Because, once the question can be answered for companies, it becomes possible to measure as well for a portfolio how much it moves global overshoot per million dollars investment. We still have not seen an impact investment portfolio that has tracked its impact on global overshoot, let alone one that actually reduced global overshoot. Should they then even be called impact funds?

Even conventional portfolios: Would they not be better off having, at least as a hedge, companies in their mix that will maintain value in a future of climate change and resource constraints?

Additional Resources:

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

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By comparing the Ecological Footprint with the planet’s biocapacity, it tells us when each year’s Earth Overshoot Day occurs. Falling on August 1^st means that humanity is currently using nature 1.7 times faster than our planet’s ecosystems can regenerate. It is like using 1.7 Earths. Overshoot is possible because we can overuse and deplete our natural capital. This compromises humanity’s resource security. The costs of this global ecological overspending are becoming increasingly evident in the form of deforestation, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, and the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The latter leads to climate change, more frequent extreme weather events and lower food production.

Earth Overshoot Day held steady for nearly a decade. It already occurs just after 7 months of the year have passed. The remainder of the year represents the overuse which adds depletion and loss to the biosphere. Even as the date holds steady, the pressure on the planet keeps increasing. This is making the situation ever riskier, since damage from overshoot accumulates over time.

Overshoot will end. The question is how: by design or by disaster. The preferable option is through deliberate efforts.

It takes focus, innovation, and effort to succeed, as athletes have demonstrated in every Olympics. For instance, Jesse Owens, the fastest runner of the 1936 Olympics, powerfully highlighted the menace of racism. Back then, humanity may have used about 0.6 Earths. Dick Fosbury revolutionized the high jump at the 1968 Olympics, when humanity used little under one Earth. By 1988, when Olympian sailor Lawrence Lemieux stopped from his lead position to rescue two capsized competitors, humanity already used 1.3 Earths. In 1992, when the US basketball team won gold, humanity’s demand went down again to 1.2 Earths. In 2008, as Usain Bolt started to break Olympic records, human use had grown to 1.6 Earths. Will we have the resolve to move out of overshoot at record speed?

Solutions that #MoveTheDate are available and financially advantageous. Significant opportunities are to be found in five key areas: Cities, Energy, Food, Population, and Planet. The Power of Possibility highlights options that move Earth Overshoot Day. For instance, cutting CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel burning by 50% would #MoveTheDate by three months. There are also businesses that #MoveTheDate as they expand. Such businesses may be the ones best positioned to gain value in a future of climate change and resource constraints.

For Media Contact: media@footprintnetwork.org

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In the first visualization below, check out the dramatic change in Footprints by region over time, with Asia skyrocketing by Europe and North America. (Click the play button in the lower left corner of the graphic.)

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The levelling of the total global Ecological Footprint in 2014, the latest year with a complete U.N. data set, may be due to a flattening of demand in China combined with slight decreases of the Ecological Footprints in high-income countries. This led to an average per-person Ecological Footprint worldwide of 2.8 global hectares, compared to 1.7 global hectares per person of available biocapacity. (Biocapacity represents the productivity of the Earth’s ecological assets. A global hectare is a biologically productive hectare with world average productivity.)

Eighty-six percent of the world’s population lives in a country with an ecological deficit. A country runs an ecological deficit when its residents demand more from nature than the country’s ecosystems can regenerate. Seventy percent of humanity lives in a country with an ecological deficit and below-average income, and therefore are unlikely to be able to buy themselves out of the resource crunch.

“Clearly, resource security is becoming an ever more significant factor for securing countries’ long-term economic vitality and resilience. Unfortunately, this is still not recognized by mainstream development policy, much to the detriment of low-income populations,” says Dr. Mathis Wackernagel, CEO of Global Footprint Network.

Global Footprint Network launched the National Footprint Accounts 2018 and several new data tools at an event during Skoll Week at Oxford. In addition, Global Footprint Network is presenting its key results on Monday, April 16, at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Highlights of the new Footprint data and tools include:

• The National Footprint Accounts 2018 Edition includes time series data for 17 countries that were not provided in the past due to data quality issues. This includes Bahrain, Equatorial Guinea, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Kazakhstan.
• Interactive world maps for Footprint and biocapacity at data.footprintnetwork.org.
• Sixty new ways to sort countries on the downloadable Public Data Package, including post-USSR countries, BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), OPEC countries, countries with the greatest GDP per capita growth from 1997 to 2007, high inflation countries, high population growth countries, and low-income countries facing severe resource constraints.
• Trend graphs for all countries, including for the compositions of the Ecological Footprint.

Additional features available for a fee include “nowcasting” capabilities to forecast results to 2018 and licenses for more detail on countries’ demand by consumption activities.

Human Development

One piece of good news is that quality of life is improving around the world, according to the UN Development Programme. The 2016 Human Development Report (the latest published) found that the U.N. Human Development Index (HDI) improved significantly across all regions from 1990 to 2015. HDI is a composite index based on three components: education, longevity, and income. A score of 0.7 is “high human development.” The graph below shows that as HDI increased, so did the Ecological Footprint per person.

Despite such progress, the 2016 Human Development Report emphasizes that one in three people worldwide continues to live in low levels of human development.

Similarly, Footprint data reveals that ecological pictures vary dramatically country by country.

High-Income Countries

The Ecological Footprint per person for high-income countries has declined 12.9 percent since 2000. Some of the countries with the largest declines since 2000 include Singapore (-32.1 percent), the Bahamas (-26.2 percent), Denmark (-19.0 percent); United States (-18.4 percent), United Kingdom (-16.6 percent), and France (-15.5 percent).

Germany experienced an 8 percent decline in its Ecological Footprint per person since 2000 and a 2.5 percent decline in its Ecological Footprint per person from 2013 to 2014. The carbon component of Germany’s Ecological Footprint declined 6.2 percent from 2013 to 2014.

Only six countries are in the envious position of increasing their ecological reserve: Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway, Sweden, and Uruguay.

China Trends

China continues to have the largest total Ecological Footprint of any country—no surprise given its huge population. The unexpected news is that China’s total Footprint actually decreased 0.3 percent from 2013 to 2014 after a steady climb since 2000, when it was half as large as it is today. China’s Ecological Footprint per person also decreased by 0.8 percent from 2013 to 2014. It is the first time these values have decreased since 2000.

The decline stems in part from a decrease in China’s total carbon Footprint by 0.7 percent and its per-person carbon Footprint by 1.2% from 2013 to 2014.

Carbon makes up the biggest portion of the global Ecological Footprint, at 60 percent. The total global carbon Footprint was about the same in 2014 as 2011, hovering at nearly 12.5 billion global hectares. This represents the area needed to sequester the carbon dioxide that the world emits into the atmosphere each year by burning fossil fuel.

Inflection Points

Two countries, both in Africa, became ecological debtors in 2014: Mali and Somalia. Bulgaria was the only country whose ecological budget moved into the black, possibly because of changes in agricultural practices.

Mali and Somalia are among 28 countries highlighted in the Public Data Package’s new sorting feature as “newly at risk,” which means they are either on the verge of running or just starting to run an ecological deficit. Other countries in this category include Botswana, Ecuador, Fiji, Honduras, Indonesia, Laos, and Nicaragua.

Footprints by the Numbers

Additional Resources

Ecological Footprint Explorer Open Data Platform: data.footprintnetwork.org
Public Data package: www.footprintnetwork.org/public
Footprint Calculator: www.footprintcalculator.org
Country Work: www.footprintnetwork.org/countries
National Footprint Accounts Video: https://youtu.be/_T5M3MiPfW4

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It is unfortunate for the world that only few companies have such a business model. Therefore, we are doubly excited to collaborate with corporate partners who have recognized what’s needed not just for sustainability, but for their own success. As sustainability becomes the driver of a company’s business success, it also expands the company’s own long-term viability. That’s why Schneider’s CEO rigorously monitors how many times more Footprint Schneider helps its clients save compared to what it takes to run Schneider Electric.

We recently talked with Xavier Houot, Senior Vice President Safety, Environment, and Real Estate, at Schneider’s offices in Paris about the company’s strategic outlook.

How did you first become acquainted with the Ecological Footprint metric?

I’ve been an environmentalist for as long as I can remember, already as a child growing up in a mountainous area of France. It’s only natural that I would discover the work of Mathis Wackernagel (co-founder of Global Footprint Network) the moment he published his work and started receiving prizes in the 1990s. In a world economy where GDP growth was the golden metric, Mathis was one of the first people I know of who would not only question consumption patterns (on the heels of Meadows, Dobson, Strong, Brundtland, back to Gandhi, Thoreau, Aristotle, etc.) but also quantify, simplify, and help each of us understand how massive the use of natural resources is, beyond the issue of carbon emissions.

This was all the more interesting to me that, when leading sustainability consulting practices between 2004 and 2014, my team and I would already use tools with clients such as “sustainability stress tests,” looking at both the environmental and social impacts of their business models and practices, and helping them define “planet-compatible” growth paths. We were clear that consumers—whether corporations or individuals—ought to be encouraged to take on the responsibility of the choices they make.

I started using the phrase “move Earth Overshoot Day” at the beginning of 2017 when speaking in front of customers. And I was thrilled when I found out that #movethedate was precisely the motto of the Earth Overshoot Day campaign last year!

How do you view your role at Schneider Electric?

I joined Schneider Electric in 2014, after spending most of my career as a sustainability and strategy consultant, including as a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers for almost 10 years, then EY – including four years living in India and working at EY India.

My passion is to move beyond talking about corporate responsibility with customers and focus on concrete win-win-win opportunities where the planet wins, together with our business performance and that of our customers. In this context, my role is to focus, on the one hand, on our own resource productivity with a view to decoupling our own supply-chain impacts from planet-resources intake, and on the other hand on the performance of our technologies on our customers’ end. After all, our customers also want resource productivity, circularity, health and safety, and more transparency—especially about the sustainability of our products, both in terms of how they are produced and of the impact they can expect from them on their own operations.

How is Schneider Electric contributing to #movethedate?

Schneider Electric generates €25 billion in revenue per year (2016). I am proud to witness that this commercial success comes from selling technologies that allow companies across sectors of the economy to “#movethedate.” And we’ve been doing it for a while. We are able now to demonstrate and quantify that “more Schneider Electric is a better climate.” And we will be reporting externally on related CO2 emissions numbers quarterly, starting April 2018. Through our EcoStruxure solutions for buildings, plants, power, grid, machine, data centers, and through our renewable energy enabling solutions, energy management software, and other value propositions, we will help our customers avoid more than 100 million tons (Mt) of CO2 emissions in the next three years, which is far more than the amount we’ll emit in same period to procure, make, and transport related offerings.

Our own operations include 200 factories and 100 distribution centers worldwide. We do measure and track our Ecological Footprint, and do intend to lead by example by contributing to #movethedate through improving the sustainability of our own operations. In our quarterly conference calls with investors, for instance, our performance analysis touches upon our progress and performances on topics such as eco-design, energy efficiency, transportation-related CO2, zero-waste-to-landfill sites, and now the amount of CO2 emissions and natural resources consumption that were avoided thanks to our circular supply chain, and the progress of our Green Premium ecolabel sales.

Sustainability is our raison d’être.

When did Schneider Electric embark on that path?

It was around 2005 when our CEO, Jean-Pascal Tricoire, explicitly and boldly connected our business strategy and value propositions with our sustainability strategy. He spelled out how they depend upon each other, stating that the success of the latter would fuel the former. From that point on, the company was able to hone a very clear message that’s all about business and sustainability strategies being aligned. This also accelerated technology innovation in order to support this approach.

I believe one of our competitive advantages in the market today is that our technologies are part of the solution to #movethedate. Our products are very closely aligned with our stated mission. For instance, at time of COP21 and ahead of the Paris Agreement, we had allocated $300 million R&D budget and floated a climate bond for low-carbon innovations, touching data centers, buildings, and smart grids. This climate bond received worldwide recognition for its innovative nature, precisely because of its R&D focus. Such efforts are ongoing obviously.

How do you share the sustainability message with customers?

We’re not about preaching to customers. What we do is provide them with, first, great technologies, second, digitized information about these technologies’ performances, environmental footprint, and end-of-life instructions. Studies show that our customers report seeing value-add from our EcoStruxure solutions in terms of improved operations transparency, resource efficiency, resilience, safety, performance, and with virtuous ripple effects across their activity.

Do you see sustainability becoming a growing concern in the corporate world?

We’re definitely seeing a growing awareness in the corporate world, and in civil society too. More and more companies are now joining the sustainability conversation, making commitments, innovating, even reinventing themselves at times, which is great! A major challenge sometimes remains translating “corporate responsibility” commitments into business offerings or value propositions.

However, with the equivalent of 1.7 planets being consumed each year and a current trajectory heading towards +4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, it is imperative that the economy as a whole and each one of us move a lot faster and a lot more drastically if we want to witness significant positive change going forward.

My personal take is that all the above has to start with each one of us through the way we eat, move around, buy, heat/cool our homes. This is where change is required first, then the rest will follow. Let’s each of us #movethedate!

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Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management and automation, and Global Footprint Network, an international research organization that has pioneered the Ecological Footprint resource accounting metric, are joining forces to promote sustainable solutions that are available today and estimate their impact on moving the date of Earth Overshoot Day. For instance, reducing the energy intensity of homes, buildings, and cities will #movethedate of Overshoot Day; halving the carbon component of the global Ecological Footprint would move the date of Overshoot Day by 89 days. Humanity needs to move the date only 4.5 days per year to operate within the means of our one planet before 2050.

Global Footprint Network is highlighting four solution areas to #movethedate: cities, energy, food, and population. A new mobile-friendly Footprint Calculator launched by the organization for Earth Overshoot Day 2017 highlights these four solution areas after users have calculated their Ecological Footprint and personal Earth Overshoot Day.

We hope our new Footprint Calculator enables millions more people around the world to explore sustainability solutions and gain an uplifting sense of the possibilities available to society. Many of these solutions directly align with Schneider Electric’s values, practices, and capabilities in the energy and city solutions space. Schneider Electric is a logical partner as a company whose business model focuses on creating a sustainable future.

Global Footprint Network’s previous calculator was used by more than 2 million people last year, including students and teachers. In addition to a greater focus on solutions, the new calculator features the latest Footprint data and methodology as well as updated graphics.

For more than 10 years, Schneider Electric has been committed to reducing the impact of natural resources usage in its own operations and the operations of its customers:

• Schneider Electric serves four key end-markets which account for about 70 percent of the world’s energy consumption, representing a significant opportunity to curb energy consumption and drive global economy’s planet-compatibility;
• On behalf of its clients, Schneider Electric has transacted on more than 60 million megawatt- hours of green power and more than 1.5 megatons of carbon offsets in more than 30 countries, including advising on over 2.1 gigawatt installed capacity of new build wind and solar projects. The company has provided renewable energy and carbon offsets to more than 8,000 global LEED® certified green building projects;
• The company is on track to reaching its target score of 9/10 on its externally audited Planet & Society barometer. The barometer’s 16 indicators measure Schneider’s progress in environmental areas such as Climate Change and Circular Economy. The company’s latest score in the second quarter of 2017 was 8.91.

Through our partnership with Global Footprint Network, Schneider Electric aims to further promote one-planet compatibility in our global economy and mobilize citizens, other companies, and governments around the world to help #movethedate of Earth Overshoot Day back to December 31. Building an always more sustainable global supply chain, and designing increasingly resource-efficient offerings for our customers is our obsession. Our EcoStruxure solutions reduce energy and CO2 intensity of homes, buildings, cities, grids, data centers, industries, and they help #movethedate.

About Global Footprint Network

Global Footprint Network is a research organization that is changing how the world manages its natural resources and responds to climate change. Since 2003 we’ve engaged with more than 50 nations, 30 cities, and 70 global partners to deliver scientific insights that have driven high-impact policy and investment decisions. Together, we’re creating a future where all of us can thrive within our planet’s limits.

www.footprintnetwork.org

About Schneider Electric

Schneider Electric is the global specialist in energy management and automation. With revenues of ~€25 billion in FY2016, our 144,000 employees serve customers in over 100 countries, helping them to manage their energy and process in ways that are safe, reliable, efficient and sustainable. From the simplest of switches to complex operational systems, our technology, software and services improve the way our customers manage and automate their operations. Our connected technologies reshape industries, transform cities and enrich lives. At Schneider Electric, we call this Life Is On.

www.schneider-electric.com

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@EndOvershoot @SchneiderElec

Hashtags: #movethedate #LifeIsOn #IoT #EcoStruxure #CircularEconomy #SchneiderElectric

Related resources:

• www.overshootday.org
• www.footprintcalculator.org
• sdreport.schneider-electric.com
• www.schneider-electric.com/en/about-us/sustainability/sustainable- performance/barometer.jsp

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