Post Archive

The Global Footprint Network approach

Humanity’s escalating ecological overshoot—demanding over 70% more from nature than ecosystems can regenerate—has led to climate disruption, biodiversity loss, and resource depletion, undermining global stability. While climate change understandably dominates the environmental discourse, it is often framed as a “free-rider... Read More

Ecological Footprint: Managing Our Biocapacity Budget

In this book, Mathis Wackernagel and Bert Beyers introduce the basic concepts, from Footprint to biocapacity and overshoot. They explain applications of this accounting tool as well as the implications of overshoot. This book is an ideal introduction to the... Read More

🎵 I love Paris… 🎵

This romantic song Cole Porter wrote in 1953 stands in sharp contrast to the current U.S. administration’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. This decision reflects the administration’s view that the potential “disease” of climate change is less... Read More

Nobel Sustainability Award Ceremony

Global Footprint Network co-founder Dr. Mathis Wackernagel received this year’s Sustainability Award at the Nobel Sustainability Trust‘s 2024 Summit at the University of California, Berkeley. You can see more about the ceremony here. He was recognized for his leadership in implementing sustainability... Read More

What would it take to halt biodiversity loss?

On the tail of the recent biodiversity conference, COP16 in Calí, Colombia, Global Footprint Network and European Topic Center on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (ETC BE) are excited to announce their new publication “Exploring the societal factors enabling to halt... Read More

Colombian Parliament Honors Mathis Wackernagel

On October 23, 2024, in the context of COP16, the UN biodiversity conference held in Calí, Colombia, Mathis Wackernagel was honored by the Colombian Congress with the “Gran Cruz con Placa de Oro” on recommendation of the honorable representative Julia Miranda.... Read More

Companies' value creation in times of overshoot

In just seven months, humanity consumes as much from nature as Earth can regenerate in a year. Earth Overshoot Day marks when humanity’s demand for ecological resources exceeds what Earth can renew in that year. Despite global efforts to mitigate... Read More

Earth Overshoot Day 2024 approaching

This year’s Earth Overshoot Day falls on August 1st: Humanity will have used nature’s resource budget for the entire year, according to our calculations, building on the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts, now maintained by York University under the governance... Read More