Earth Overshoot Day
Have you heard of the concept of ‘Earth Overshoot Day’?
“Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. We maintain this deficit by liquidating stocks of ecological resources and accumulating waste, primarily carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”
This year it will fall on the 1st of August - this means it is only taking 7 months to go through what the world ‘should’ go through as a maximum in 12 months … Ideally, we want to have our overshoot date extending into the following year.
To highlight the extent of the problem, and therefore the need for action, there are a few countries that don’t have an overshoot day - but hardly any. This means nearly all countries on earth - especially developed and populous ones - are having such a large negative impact on overconsumption. If we correctly embrace circular principles, we won’t need to make sacrifices on comfort; we just need a huge shift in manufacturing and consumer trends towards repairability, reusability and recyclability and NOT making waste in the first place.
“A country’s overshoot day is the date on which Earth Overshoot Day would fall if all of humanity consumed like the people in that country.”
Earlier in the year, on June 3rd, the UK had its country overshoot day. The UK’s overshoot day is worse than the Earth overshoot day meaning we are contributing (like most developed countries) to the problem relatively more than most.
To see more about which countries are contributing most relative to their population, click here: https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/newsroom/country-overshoot-days/
At ICEX GROUP, we believe businesses and universities must work together to drive policy change at government level and therefore drive real world change towards a more sustainable future. One way for us to extend our overshoot day (and ideally make it 12 months plus!) is to embrace the circular economy and move away from linear (or waste) economies.
For a free consultation about any of our services, or to have a chat about how we can help your organisation promote the circular economy to help people, the planet and your organisation, contact the ICEX team today:
📞 01376 503900
ICEX GROUP’s mission is to securely revive or relocate, and if necessary, recycle all our clients’ technology assets, to help achieve digital equality, and reduce E-waste to landfill.