Overshoot

Everyone Considers Themselves to Be a Special Case

As part of a portrait by Switzerland’s largest media group Tamedia, Mathis Wackernagel discussed in May 2026 how overshoot may affect countries and companies. Mathis makes the case why the narrative of holding ecological overshoot primarily as a resource security... Read More

Country Overshoot Days 2026

In December 2025, Global Footprint Network launched the Country Overshoot Day calendar for 2026. The dates are based on the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts, 2025 edition. All the details are available here. To explore its meaning, Mathis Wackernagel was... Read More
Factory in Forest

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

March 13th: A Big Day for the U.S.

At least it’s not Friday the 13th—but on March 13, the U.S. will reach its Overshoot Day for the year 2025. What is this Overshoot Day? If everyone in the world lived like U.S. residents, humanity would have exhausted its... 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
Regional Footprints Graphic

Three Visualizations of Footprint Trends, 1961-2014

We used the Google data platform to create visualizations of three trends from our new National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts 2018 Edition, which launched Monday, April 9, in Europe and will launch Monday, April 16, in the United States. In... Read More

Has humanity’s Ecological Footprint reached its peak?

Humanity’s total Ecological Footprint—a measure of global demand for natural resources—remained virtually constant in 2014 compared to 2013, according to new data released by Global Footprint Network today at an event at Oxford University. In another positive sign, the global... Read More