Earth Day? We overshot it
If you didn’t already know, you probably realised from the barrage of green-tinted emails in your inbox – 22 April was Earth Day. A day to celebrate our planet and launch initiatives to protect it. But there’s also another day you should mark on your calendars.
Earth Overshoot Day represents the day each year when humanity’s demand for ecological resources exceeds what our planet can generate. In short, after overshoot day, we are living beyond our means for the rest of the year, in terms of natural resources. The earlier in the year Earth Overshoot Day lands the more sizeable our impact.
Last year it was on 29 July, demonstrating a 4.6% increase in ecological footprint relative to 2020. Our global carbon footprint also increased by 6.6%. Reiterating the need for us to do more to preserve our natural resources.
As well as the global Earth Overshoot Day, different countries have their own overshoot days associated with them. These show how quickly we’d run out resources if we all lived like certain populations.
If everyone lived like Canadians, Earth Overshoot Day would have fallen on 13 March this year. If we all lived like the population of Jamaica, it would be postponed until 20 December. In the UK Earth Overshoot Day is predicted to be not much beyond the first quarter of 2022, on 19 May.
We need to preserve our natural resources. It’s fundamentally a matter of economic prosperity. The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) claims almost half of the world’s economic activity depends on nature. That’s about $44tn of value.
The TNFD has established a beta version of a framework for companies to make nature-related disclosures. These will detail how company operations impact, and are impacted by, the natural world. That sounds daunting. It means soon, in addition to TCFD disclosure which became mandatory earlier this month, you’ll also have to account for how your business impacts biodiversity.
This will be tougher if you’ve offices or employees across the globe. Remember different nations have different overshoot days.
It may also clash with net-zero plans. If you’re using offsets, for example, to achieve emission-reduction goals, try to understand whether these are impacting nature in any way.
If offsets involve the planting of non-native species or encroach on Indigenous land without permissions, they could be causing harm – albeit while removing carbon from the atmosphere. These could fall foul of future disclosure requirements – the TNFD is engaging with Indigenous groups as part of its process to establish these standards.
Ask yourself, therefore, whether you need to rely on offsets. A change of business strategy may be more sustainable in the long term.
As always, when faced with a daunting and complex task, it’s best to remember that small steps make a difference. There are ways, for example, to make caring about nature and the environment a company-wide issue and not just one that lies at the feet of management.
Some companies have introduced new policies to stop staff expensing meals that involve meat. As we return to in-person events, consider embracing all-vegetarian or vegan menus. Think about whether you need to charge customers more for environmentally friendly options.
Small steps can help knit your company together behind the cause. They can also prepare you for when disclosures, almost inevitably, become a requirement.