Where we come from

Everyone should be able to look forward to a bright future where we all thrive within the regenerative capacity of our planet. However, our economies are currently running a fraudulent Ponzi (or pyramid) scheme with our planet. We are consuming natural resources faster than they can regenerate; we are using the Earth’s future resources to operate in the present; we are digging ourselves deeper and deeper into ecological debt.

Prosperity can only last if we embrace the reality of our planet’s means. Accepting this physical reality allows us to build an economy that works forever. Ignoring ecological limits leads to a finite, time-limited economy which steadily erodes the planet it depends on.

A path to success – or to one-planet prosperity – requires robust metrics that relate our global context to local decisions. Measure what you treasure: To build a world where all can thrive, we need to know how much nature we have and how much we use.

The origin of the metric

The core of Global Footprint Network is the Ecological Footprint, a comprehensive sustainability metric. It was created by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees in the early 1990s as part of Wackernagel’s PhD research at the University of British Columbia. Over the years, the Ecological Footprint concept has grown to become a household phrase around the world. The term “footprint” has become synonymous with human behavior and its impact on our planet. It applies to humanity, countries, cities, companies, communities, and individuals. It allows us to grapple with overshoot, possibly the largest risk for humanity in the 21^st century.

Global Footprint Network’s key strategy has been to make available robust Ecological Footprint data. The Ecological Footprint continues to be the only metric that comprehensively compares human demand on nature against nature’s capacity to regenerate. It is based on simple, straightforward accounting – not on arbitrary scoring. Since its inception, Global Footprint Network has calculated Footprints of countries for each year that UN data has been available. Since 2019, these national calculations are produced by York University under the governance of the Footprint Data Foundation (FoDaFo). Currently the accounts cover 1961 to 2022. Together with partners, we, and now FoDaFo, have made every annual edition more transparent and more accurate. This has included rigorous reviews by government institutes and advisory committees, including the Science Advisory Council of FoDaFo.

The Footprint’s growing success

Since Mathis Wackernagel and Susan Burns co-founded the organization in 2003, the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts have garnered widespread attention. Their results are quoted by presidents and UN Secretary General. They are also included in countless reports by organizations like the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the World Economic Forum, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), UN Environment, and the European Environment Agency. We have engaged with more than 70 country governments on six continents and partnered with over 80 organizations. Over 10 national governments have tested the accounts and verified the results. Over 15 national governments have applied our metric to their own policy initiatives. A review of the first 30 years of ecological footprinting is available here.

We work with researchers around the world and are legally established as charitable organizations in Oakland, California, in Geneva, Switzerland, and more recently in Italy.

To expand our reach, we launched the Ecological Footprint Explorer open data platform in 2017. This makes our Footprint and biocapacity data for more than 200 countries freely available. The Ecological Footprint Calculator, which was introduced online in 2007 and refreshed in 2017, currently draws over 4 million users per year. There have been over 20 million visitors since it was refreshed. At the beginning of each school year, thousands of teachers and college professors around the world use the Ecological Footprint Calculator to introduce their students to sustainability. Hence, we have co-developed an educational platform as well.

In 2006, we started our annual Earth Overshoot Day campaign, which marks the date when humanity has used more from nature than our planet can renew in the entire year. In 2024, Earth Overshoot Day fell on August 1. In 2020, it moved all the way to August 22 due to the COVID lockdown; though by disaster, not design. Yet it was still earlier than in 2000 when it occurred as late as September 23. In 2023, Earth Overshoot Day received more than 7 billion media impressions in nearly 100 countries (up from 3 billion in 2018), according to Meltwater media search. There is large uptake among the public, in Europe and Latin America in particular. For instance, a recent survey shows that 43% of the Germans are familiar with Earth Overshoot Day. Now we also show how we can #MoveTheDate and push out the date of Earth Overshoot Day. If we move the date 6 days a year, humanity will be using less than one Earth before 2050. Yet, complying with IPCC’s most recent 2030 reduction targets would require 10 days per year. Recognizing this, #MoveTheDate has become a rallying cry for pioneering business leaders such as Schneider Electric or Interzero, environmental organizations, forward-looking politicians, governments, and sustainability enthusiasts alike.

Where we are going

Humanity has shattered its ecological budget: data indicates that carbon emissions combined with all other human demands on the biosphere consume more than 175% of what the Earth replenishes—in effect, humanity now uses nearly two planets. In the wake of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, it became obvious that governments and institutions move far more slowly than what is warranted. The IPCC 1.5°C special report (October 2018) confirms unequivocally that the only option is to transition to regenerative economies that live off, rather than liquidate, our natural capital. Natural resource production can be infinite if we maintain that capital. In contrast, business as usual is eroding our ability to thrive. Living within the means of our planet does not mean that people have to live with discomfort and without human dignity. Thriving is possible if we put our heads, hearts and hands to it. Avoiding the topic, in contrast will make thriving impossible.

What’s holding us back? Can we drop our reluctance at last and open ourselves to the astounding challenges and opportunities that lie in designing a one-planet society and economy?

Faced with the need to make our ways of living one-planet compatible, Global Footprint Network stepped up the game. It is recognizing that as long as achieving sustainability is seen as noble rather than necessary, action will be inadequate. The reality is that we all have skin in the game, whether we recognize it or not. Proactive adoption of sustainability is becoming central to our own success. Our  organization’s contribution is therefore to boost the desire for thriving within planetary means, augment everybody’s sense of agency, and spur people’s curiosity about how to get to our desired outcome.

Co-founder Mathis Wackernagel reflected on our strategies and failures in communicating about resource constraints and biological regeneration. We recently published a series of blog posts reflecting on what we’ve learned from our communications over the years. This communication exploration and an in-depth report were made possible thanks to generous funding from the MAVA Foundation for Nature.

Global Footprint Network’s focus now is to make obvious to decision-makers and its influencers that our own success is at stake. In other words, inaction is becoming self-destructive. We help our audiences recognize that enhancing their own resource security makes them stronger—that it is an imperative, not a nice-to-have. This shift in conviction will ultimately #MoveTheDate.

Our data-driven work drives the transformation to significantly and consistently #MoveTheDate in two ways:

1. We are creating demand for sustainability through large-scale engagement. Global Footprint Network is shifting the narrative by strengthening visceral demand, not just hope, for sustainability. By showing people and institutions everywhere that sustainability is our best success strategy, we create what is currently missing: desire and demand. This is essential for all of us to #MoveTheDate. Our engagements reach from:
   ●   global campaigns like Earth Overshoot Day that focus the conversation on resource security, to
   ●   our Footprint Calculator that feeds into
   ●   the Power of Possibility that outlines ways to move Earth Overshoot Day, and the #MoveTheDate platform that invites people to declare publicly the solutions they admire, to
   ●   direct engagements with companies, cities and countries turning Footprint results into powerful decision-tools.

   Our ambition is to make these engagements psychologically effective and astute, so the experiences we create on these platforms leave people passionate about building the future they want. Direct engagements with partners and clients include customized calculators, detailed Footprint data, support for sustainability campaigns, or applied sustainability assessments, from products, to cities, regions or countries. For example, projects may focus on particular aspects such as food systems, investment decisions, ecological restoration, countries’ competitiveness, or tourism. Learn more about what we offer here.

2. We have made the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts independent. Global Footprint Network has turned the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts into an autonomous entity called FoDaFo – the Footprint Data Foundation. To bring them to the next level of influence, we know that the accounts need to be independently produced and governed, so they become trusted and neutral. Transparency and robustness are key to making them acceptable.
   The accounts’ foundational principle provides them with a clear and simple focus: adding up competing demands for biocapacity. To avoid bias, the accounts draw exclusively on official data from the UN and associated entities. This new organization, FoDaFo – the Footprint Data Foundation, which has been established by Global Footprint Network and York University in Toronto in 2019, provides the governance over the accounts. It also owns them, and has them produced through York University.
   Global Footprint Network remains as one of the supporting organizations behind FoDaFo. FoDaFo is governed by an international board, advised by its science advisory council. The plan is to amplify this effort through an academic research network. This setup will allow far more researchers to participate and apply their innovative contributions. The science advisory council then can recommend which of the suggested improvements to implement. Governance enhanced by scientific review allows FoDaFo to stimulate academic creativity while also maintaining stability and consistency of the accounts. Ultimately we envision a group of forward-looking countries and their institutions  to boost the reach, utility, and adoption of the accounts among all stakeholders, thereby informing public and private decision-making.

What we’re committed to

Transforming humanity’s trajectory is more pressing than ever. A sustainable path is the only viable way forward. We must stop stealing our future resources to fuel our economy’s obsession with unsustainable growth.

Global Footprint Network’s ambition is clear. We want to end Earth Overshoot Day. By design, and not by disaster. We are determined to accelerate humanity’s shared desire to #MoveTheDate of overshoot and exit the erosive ecological Ponzi (or pyramid) scheme that our economies are running with the planet. Together, we have the foresight and the capacity to innovate towards one-planet prosperity. With you we can make it happen.