Footprint Network Blog - 09/2009
Today is Earth Overshoot Day
September 25 marked this year’s Earth Overshoot Day: the day global demand on ecological services – from filtering CO2 to producing food, fiber and timber– outstripped what than nature can produce in this year, according to Global Footprint Network calculations. From now until the end of the year, we will meet our demand for ecological services by depleting resource stocks and accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
“It’s a simple case of income versus expenditures,” said Global Footprint Network President Mathis Wackernagel. “For years, our demand on nature has exceeded, by an increasingly greater margin, the budget of what nature can produce. The urgent threats we are seeing now – most notably climate change, but also biodiversity loss, shrinking forests, declining fisheries, soil erosion and freshwater stress – are all clear signs: Nature is running out of credit to extend.”
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New Footprint Standards Released
Global Footprint Network is pleased to announce the release of the Ecological Footprint Standards 2009. This document builds on the first set of internationally recognized Ecological Footprint Standards, released in 2006, and includes key updates – such as, for the first time, providing guidelines and standards for product and organizational Footprint assessments.
The Standards have been designed to ensure that Footprint analyses are produced consistently and according to community-proposed best practices. They aim to certify that assessments are conducted and communicated in a way that is accurate and transparent, by providing Standards and Guidelines on such issues as use of source data, derivation of conversion factors, establishment of study boundaries, and communication of findings. The Standards are applicable to all Footprint studies, including sub-national populations, products, and organizations. Global Footprint Network asks that all Partners comply with the most recent Ecological Footprint Standards, in order to promote the quality and integrity of Ecological Footprint Accounting.
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Global Footprint Network Comments on Stiglitz Report
During the year and a half since French President Nicolas Sarkozy established the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, it has focused on one challenge: How can we move beyond GDP to broader measures of a nation’s economic, social and environmental well-being?
Global Footprint Network applauds this effort and congratulates the Commission for taking a crucial step toward answering that question through its release of the Stiglitz Report. The report synthesizes the complex field of economic performance and social progress indicators and substantiates the voices of early pioneers like Hazel Henderson and Hermann Daly.
With this report, there is now wide agreement that humanity’s success in the 21st century depends largely on robust navigational tools. The report has built a productive platform for further discussions. However, there is still much work to do. The report points out that there is no consensus yet as to which indicators provide the greatest value, and how they should be applied in guiding public policy.
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Personal Calculator for Switzerland Launched
Global Footprint Network has launched the latest addition to its popular Ecological Footprint calculator with data specific to Switzerland. Click here to take the quiz.
Users walk an avatar through a Swiss countryside, answering questions about their consumption and lifestyle habits. At the end of the quiz they learn how much of the Earth’s resources it takes to support their lifestyle and what they can do to get closer to living within the means of our one planet. The Swiss version includes new, updated features to the Footprint calculator, including functionality in English .German, French and Italian languages.
The application was launched in partnership with WWF Switzerland as part of its campaign on environmental behavior, which for the past six years has featured the Ecological Footprint. This campaign has reached half a million people, and with the help of Global Footprint Network will now help the public understand their natural resource impact. According to WWF Switzerland, the calculator presents an attractive and illuminating tool that will engage people to optimize their every day behavior and reduce the Footprint. The Swiss calculator will be the first European dot on Global Footprint Network’s global calculator map.
For WWF Switzerland the footprint calculator is a valuable and attractive complementary tool that helps motivate people to participate in the various activities WWF Switzerland offers people to optimize their everyday behavior and reduce their Footprint.
Global Footprint Network is inviting corporate, government, and NGO partners to help expand the calculator to include additional features and locations. Please contact Meredith Stechbart, meredith@footprintnetwork.org, if you would like to be involved or would like the calculator customized for your organization.
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