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Carlson Rezidor's Inge Huijbrechts Shares her thoughts on Earth Overshoot Day

Today, the 2nd of August, is Earth Overshoot Day – the day on which we have used up all natural resources on the planet for this year. The remainder of the year is overconsumption. If we would all consume just the resources the planet has available, the day would fall on Dec 31st. Every year the date falls earlier. Surprisingly, in 1987, the day still fell in December – on Dec 19th to be precise. Since then, our consumption of natural resources has dramatically increased – bringing Earth Overshoot Day forward into August since 2010. With EOD, delays and pushbacks are a good thing. So, what can we all do to push back this date and ‘Think Planet’? Here’s some of the best possible actions:

Diet: love your greenies

Published 7 years ago | About a 2 minute read

Every year the date falls earlier. Surprisingly, in 1987, the day still fell in December – on Dec 19th to be precise. Since then, our consumption of natural resources has dramatically increased – bringing Earth Overshoot Day forward into August since 2010.

With EOD, delays and pushbacks are a good thing. So, what can we all do to push back this date and ‘Think Planet’? Here’s some of the best possible actions:

1. Diet: love your greenies

Diet choices and cutting food waste are powerful sustainability levers. Vegetarian meals are light on carbon and water.

It takes 14 times as much biologically productive land to produce 1 ton of beef as it takes to produce 1 ton of grain. Furthermore, global livestock is responsible for 9% of all human generated carbon emissions. To put it bluntly, reducing meat consumption is a great way to reduce our Ecological (carbon & water) Footprint.

Additionally, sourcing food locally and avoiding highly processed foods can lower the Ecological Footprint

2. Energy: move to renewables

De-carbonizing the economy is our best possible chance to address climate change and would improve the balance between our ecological footprint and the planet’s renewable natural resources

Operating on renewable energy is our one of the best ways to decarbonize our businesses and our lives. Luckily, we continue to hear increasingly positive news regarding renewables.

For example:

In June 2017, renewables provided over 50% of UK electricity
Portugal recently ran for four days straight on renewable energy alone.
Some companies already run 100% on renewables: Google, for example, will reach 100% renewable energy for its global operations in 2017 panda RE farm China

3. Transportation: travel light and together

Use public transportation where possible - why not take the train to your next business meeting or walk, cycle, or run. It helps to consider the total travel time of a trip. For many European trips, for example, a high speed train is faster than a short flight.

Calculate your ecological footprint here (the calculation is more holistic than just a carbon footprint calculation, so you will definitely be unpleasantly surprised by your footprint…) and learn more about Earth Overshoot Day here

Read more stories like this on Rezidor's Momentum blog.