Earth Overshoot Day: What it means for sustainable production and consumption

Erika Drazen
Aug 9, 2017 · 4 min read

Last week, specifically August 2nd, was Earth Overshoot Day. For those who don’t know what Earth Overshoot Day is, it is the day of the year that marks when humans collectively have used more from nature than our planet can renew in the whole year. That means that we have used all the resources the world can renew in 365 days in only 214 days, or in 59% of the time it takes to create them. Even before I took accounting classes for my MBA at the Yale School of Management, I knew that the math on this did not work out and that meant humans were running an unsustainable, very dangerous debt with nature. While we as humans have been able to sustain that debt for a while, eventually our renewable resources (timber, water, etc.) will be depleted. And, since we haven’t yet figured out how to live on Mars… it is imperative that we learn how to balance our accounts with nature so humans and all life can continue to thrive on this planet for generations to come.

Having recently graduated with a Master of Environmental Science from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, most of my time was spent learning about tropical forests. Project Drawdown ranks tropical forest restoration as the fifth most effective solution for carbon dioxide mitigation. Tropical forests used to cover 12% of the Earth’s surface and now cover only 5%. This rapid global deforestation is primarily due to agricultural and commodities production, like cattle, oil palm, soy, and pulp and paper. Time and time again during my graduate studies, I learned how oil palm is destroying Indonesia’s rainforests and putting strain on orangutan habitat, how cattle and soy are contributing to mass deforestation of the Amazon, and about other such cases of commodity-driven deforestation.

Learning from a STRI scientist about teak plantations in the tropical forests of Panama for a course on Tropical Field Ecology at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

In our academic article for the Journal of Sustainable Forestry and analyzing which Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets and indicators relate to tropical forests and their resources, our analysis demonstrates that the SDG that had the greatest impact on forests was SDG 12: Responsible Production and Consumption. Throughout my work with The Forests Dialogue and the International Society of Tropical Foresters, I learned about zero deforestation commitments that companies were making. Many forward thinking companies are making deforestation free commitments, yet figuring out how companies can implement these commitments has proven a challenge.

In order to achieve these commitments, as well as the incredibly ambitious SDGs, to safeguard our natural resources, societal paradigms of production and consumption will have to fundamentally shift. In general, society needs to change the paradigms of hyper-consumerism and planned obsolescence, which are ubiquitous in my wonderful hometown of Los Angeles, California. For instance, people have an obsession with getting the latest technology when an old one could be repaired, or use single use plastic bags instead of reusable ones. In order to counter these paradigms, a combination of behavioral economics, design thinking and government regulations and incentives should be used. This combination has proven successful in eliminating single-use plastic bag consumption, in Delhi, France, and California (I’m a very proud Californian).

A method to help businesses understand and incorporate information into their reporting is natural capital accounting. This accounting system not only addresses the value of commodities, but accounts for risks and opportunities associated with the natural resources. Additionally, Climate Advisers, where I will start working after my time at the UNLEASH Lab in Denmark, conducts Chain Reaction Research to provide financial analysis of the risks of commodity supply chains. Relating these risks and opportunities to costs can help business, governments and civil society to make better informed decisions, and truly understand the impact of their policies. Using natural capital accounting and supply chain risk analysis can start to help #movethedate of Earth Overshoot Day to more efficiently and sustainably use resources.

Business as usual is not working. However, the needle has started to move on these issues as businesses and nonprofits have started to work together on fostering better sustainable production practices, including the World Wide Fund for Nature and Coca-Cola, the National Wildlife Federation and the Kering Group, and The Nature Conservancy and 3M. While this is a good start, rapid acceleration of impact is needed if we are to reach even a small portion of the SDGs Targets by 2030. Finding new and innovative ways to combine resources, expertise, technology and impact is crucial.

This is why I was incredibly excited when I heard about UNLEASH Lab, and am honored to be part of the first cohort of UNLEASH Talents. UNLEASH Lab in Copenhagen will take place in August 2017, where 1,000 Talents from 129 different countries will come together to innovate and co-create real, scalable solutions to the SDGs. During this Lab, I will be part of the Sustainable Production and Consumption theme, where I hope to focus on the subthemes of responsible supply chains, consumer behavior and the circular economy. Hopefully through this effort, we can help #movethedate of Earth Overshoot Day to December 31st, or even to the following year, and rebalance our accounts with the planet!

If you are interested in staying up to date on my experience at UNLEASH, you can follow me on Twitter or on LinkedIn.

UNLEASH Lab

Global innovation lab creating disruptive solutions for the UN's SDGs

Erika Drazen

Written by

UNLEASH Lab

Global innovation lab creating disruptive solutions for the UN's SDGs

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