Footprint Network Blog
The Global Journal, a Geneva-based publication that covers international politics and leadership, named Global Footprint Network as one of the world’s 100 Best NGOs this week. These leading 100 actors represent the changing dynamics and innovative approaches of the non-profit world, Global Journal said in its January/February 2012 issue.
“We are humbled to be in the company of the many innovative organizations named in the top 100 who are seeking to create systemic change, ” said Susan Burns, Global Footprint Network’s Senior Vice President and co-founder. “The world now finds itself at a defining moment where ecological constraints are ever more critical as we seek to secure people’s well-being.”
The Global Journal used a specific set of metrics (impact, transparency, accountability, innovation and efficiency) as a rough guideline to rank the NGOs.
“There is no science in the measuring,” Global Journal said. “How does one – after all – compare the fundamental societal impact of an organization like the Wikimedia Foundation, with the tangible outputs of a well oiled humanitarian machine?”
Global Journal said its Top 100 list was meant to inform, stimulate debate, inspire and show the incredible dedication that is displayed on a daily basis in and out of the spotlight on a daily basis.
“Recognizing the significant role of NGOs as influential agents of change on a global scale, The Global Journal has sought to move beyond outdated clichés and narrow conceptions about what an NGO is and does,” the Journal said as it announced the Top 100 list. “From humanitarian relief to the environment, public health to education, microfinance to intellectual property, NGOs are increasingly at the forefront of developments shaping the lives of millions of people around the world.”
Other ranking organizations included Wikimedia, Partners in Health, PATH, CARE International, Gram Vikas, Oxfam and TED.
The joint project between the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and Global Footprint Network to assess the financial materiality of ecological risk was launched at the UN Foundation in Washington DC on 17 October 2011. Opening remarks from Paul Clements-Hunt (Head of UNEP FI) and Susan Burns (Senior Vice President of Global Footprint Network) showed a clear commitment from both organisations to this potentially ground breaking project. Richard Burrett, of Earth Capital Partners, also gave an inspiring presentation detailing not only the importance of this project but also how investors currently perceive the financial relevance of natural resources.
It is clear that the tightening constraints on resources and their potential impacts on national economies are not included within current financial analysis. Yet such factors are thought to have growing implications for the long-term credit risk of many government bonds, especially those with long-dated maturities.
A host of financial institutions were in attendance at the launch and participated in a stimulating discussion around the evidence base to show that ecological risks are becoming material for economies and how key ecological data can be linked to the financial and economic indicators. This project will endeavour to shine a light on such questions to explore the role of natural resource accounting in strengthening risk models for government bonds.
Global Footprint Network and UNEP FI would like to thank all those who participated in the launch event and invite any other institutions who are interested to join the project.
For more information please see the project brochure or contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Humanity has reached a new milestone as we hit 7 billion. Never before have there been 7 billion people on planet earth, all at the same time. As we welcome the 7th billion global inhabitant, we also acknowledge the challenges we will face due to a burgeoning population explosion, resource depletion, food and water scarcity and overcrowded cities. This is especially true at a time when humanity as a whole is already using the planets regenerative capacity 50 percent faster than it can renew.
Although humanity’s total demand is unsustainable, this consumption is very unevenly distributed among the 7 billion people. A large portion of humanity does not have enough resources to secure even their most basic subsistence needs. This suffering is intolerable. It affects the rest of humanity, too, most visibly through conflict and instability.
Therefore, Global Footprint Network is mapping how much nature we have, how much we use, and who uses what. In a crowded, resource constrained world this information helps decision makers understand our present resource situation and find options for avoiding unpleasant consequences.
Our Numbers in Action
Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch uses our numbers to build their argument. They maintain that “[t]he facts about the coming catastrophe are so obvious. Just apply a little grade-school math and economic common sense: Our planet’s natural resources can reasonably support about 5 billion people. That’s a fact. Another: Today we have 7 billion. That’s a problem, 2 billion too many. We’re consuming commodities and natural resources at a rate of 1.5 Earths, according to estimates by the Global Footprint Network of scientists and economists.”
With more people sharing the planet, there is inevitably less planet per person. That’s a simple calculation. By looking at the numbers we can begin to address these issues – to ensure better lives for people in the future. That’s what Global Footprint Network stands for.
The new State of the World Population 2011 Report, the United Nations Fund for Population Assistance builds on our numbers and concludes that “humanity’s ecological footprint is already large. Since the 1970s, humanity has been in ’ecological overshoot’ with annual demand on resources exceeding what Earth can regenerate in 365 days. It now takes the Earth one year and six months to regenerate what we use in a year.”
Consider this
The average Footprint for a country is a function of the resource intensity of the goods and services each person consumes. Reductions in individual consumption, and the resources used or waste emitted in producing goods and services, all result in a smaller Footprint.
Reductions in per person consumption and in the technology factor can be achieved by encouraging highly energy efficient buildings and compact cities where non-car transport options out-compete car use. Other options include cradle-to-cradle industrial approaches, renewable energy production and smart grids. Technological innovations can increase the efficiency of resource use, such as video conferencing instead of travel, meeting communication needs with cellular phones rather than landlines, or replacing paper with energy efficient electronic devices.
There are plenty of non-coercive and effective strategies that reduce and eventually reverse population growth. Slow reductions in population size may generate little resource gains in the very short term, but lead to dramatic cumulative declines in biocapacity deficits in the longer term. Population growth can be discouraged most effectively through voluntary measures such as information about and access to family planning and female education. If well planned, these efforts also lead to significant human wellbeing boons such as increased longevity, higher educational achievements and much reduced violence potentials.
Living within Natures Budget Improves People’s Lives
Addressing overshoot, and with it population size, could not only produce huge improvements in people’s lives, but more importantly, ignoring it would lead to painful human tragedies that would eventually touch every human being. As we welcome the 7th billionth resident, we also invite you to join forces with all those who are eager to build a green economy, where we invest in the self-confidence of women, higher education levels, advancement of green cities, sustainable agriculture, protection of biodiversity and much more. We need all of these efforts combined so people can live great lives within the means of planet earth.
As the world population hits 7 Billion, GrowthBuster’s bold new film will hold its world premiere in Washington DC on November 2, 2011. The film, Hooked on Growth, puts the modern “culture of growth”, as Dave Gardner, the film’s director coins it, under a microscope. Hooked on Growth, offers a look at the plethora of media messaging reinforcing the culture of growth. “We are at a point where we have to choose either a culture of growth or a culture of sustainability,” says Dave Gardner.
“The evidence available to us makes it clear the scale of the human enterprise has outgrown our planet,” says Gardner. “Yet we ignore that evidence, and we do so with wild abandon. GrowthBusters explores why.”
“A 200-year binge of rampant consumption, population and economic growth have led us to believe growth is the path to prosperity and fulfillment,” says Gardner. Chris Martenson, author of The Crash Course, remarks in the film, “We happen to have had growth and prosperity coincident for long enough that we’ve confused them….”
The film calls this a “cultural myth.” GrowthBusters lays much of the blame for the myth’s persistence on the news media. Society is therefore hit with a constant barrage of language and attitude that reinforces the myth and programs the next generation to buy into it. The film identifies another force reinforcing growth addiction as “growth-pushers.” Companies and individuals whose increased wealth depends on market growth, “maintaining the illusion that perpetual growth is possible and desirable,” Gardner states. GrowthBusters examines the beliefs and attitudes causing people to ignore evidence that perpetual growth is taking place.
“This could be the most important film ever made,” writes Paul Ehrlich, Author of The Population Bomb.
Gardner interviewed psychologists, physicists, ecologists, sociologists and economists to research and create GrowthBusters. It features interviews with experts like former World Bank senior economist Herman Daly and former presidential advisors Gus Speth and Robert Solow.
The film offers a hopeful perspective on a dour subject. It profiles “Growthbusters in Action,” groups and individuals pioneering new value systems and ways of life that don’t depend on growth.
After its world premiere November 2, groups and individuals will hold screenings of the film around the world.
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Global Footprint Network is the standard setting body for the only Ecological Footprint standards in the world. The Ecological Footprint standards set forth quality criteria for Ecological Footprint studies of sub-national populations, organizations, and products. The goal of the Ecological Footprint Standards is to build consensus among practitioners regarding Ecological Footprint methodology, transparency, and communications. This consensus is important because it helps to establish a forum or a common platform for understanding and communicating about natural resource constraints. To that end, the Ecological Footprint Standards are used as a way of maintaining the scientific credibility and accuracy of Ecological Footprint studies, the policy relevance, and the consistency and appropriateness with which the method is applied and findings communicated.
Global Footprint Network’s Ecological Footprint Standards have been established through a committee-based process that incorporates input from our Partnership Network and Public Comment. The Global Footprint Network Standards Committee is starting the process to review and revise the Ecological Footprint Standards. Participation in the Committee and Procedures for the Committee are outlined in Global Footprint Network Committees Charter. The result of this process will be updates to the 2009 Ecological Footprint Standards to be released towards the end of 2012.
Improving comparability
The original goal of the Ecological Footprint Standards is to increase the quality, reliability and consistency of Footprint assessments. As the Ecological Footprint is being adopted by a growing number of government agencies, organizations and communities as a measure of environmental performance, there is an even greater need for quality, consistency, and reliability. This review and revision process for the 2012 Ecological Footprint Standards is a way to maintain this goal of improving comparability.
In addition, as the Ecological Footprint methodology is applied in different circumstances by different practitioners, advances to the methodology and communications strategies are being made. Conducting a review and revision process every three years allows Global Footprint Network to stay on top of advances in Ecological Footprint science and application. By engaging with experts, our Partner Network, and public comment every three years, our Ecological Footprint Standards can allow for a dynamic process that encourages innovation and action.
Global Footprint Network is actively seeking input from our Partner Network and Public Comment
We invite interested parties to review our Ecological Footprint Standards and submit comments and recommendations for updates to be considered by the Standards Committee. The Standards Committee will start discussions in November, 2011. If you have suggestions that you would like the Standards Committee to consider, please send your input to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Your feedback is welcome during the entire process! Before the revised Standards are finalized in 2012, there will be two 60-day Public Review periods, one in March – May 2012 and the second in July – September 2012. These are your opportunities to provide more input as the draft develops.
UNEP FI project seeks framework for assessing government bonds
Could an abundance of natural wealth be a factor in positively influencing a country’s credit rating and the quality of its bonds? Could a resource-guzzling economy be cause for a downgrade?
The UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) in collaboration with Global Footprint Network and leading financial institutions will endeavor to shine a light on these questions with a groundbreaking project to explore the role of natural resource accounting in strengthening risk models for government bonds. The project seeks to incorporate how much natural wealth countries have – and how much they spend – into assessments of long-term credit risk.
Tightening constraints on resources and their potential impacts on national economies have been largely absent from financial analysis. Yet such factors are thought to have growing implications for the long-term credit risk of many government bonds, especially those with long-dated maturities.
“The global financial crisis has taught us more than anything that some of the core risks that affect the value of debt securities and derivatives can simply run ahead of our ability to understand them,” said Paul Clements-Hunt, Head of UNEP FI. “This is why we must deepen our understanding of the risks posed by climate change, water scarcity and the overuse of natural resources for securities. We should not be caught off-guard again. This project is one of the first that tries to quantitatively and systematically consider the linkages between the use of natural resources and its impact on a country’s core economic indicators that in turn influence the quality of its bonds.”
The bond project was launched yesterday at workshop at a side-event to the UNEP FI Global Roundtable, which is taking place in Washington D.C. this week. The Roundtable draws hundreds of leading financial experts along with high-level government officials seeking to address the link between financial stability and environmental sustainability.
The project has two aims: it will investigate the linkages between ecological risk and country-level risk in sovereign bonds, and develop a methodology to explore how credit rating agencies, investors and financial information providers can integrate ecological data into their respective models. In particular, the analysis will look at the risks to countries whose populations and/or industries require more resources than is domestically available and which are hence reliant on ecological services from abroad.
“As resource constraints tighten globally, countries that depend heavily on ecological services from other nations may find that their resource supply becomes insecure and unreliable. This has economic implications – in particular for countries that depend upon large amounts of ecological assets to power their key industries or to support their consumption patterns and lifestyles,” said Global Footprint Network President Mathis Wackernagel. “Meanwhile, those countries with reserves of valuable natural capital may find themselves in an advantageous position.”
The project will substantiate the business case for financial institutions and ratings agencies to include ecological criteria as a key component of financially material country credit risk analysis. Institutions will thus be enabled to work towards better inclusion of financially-material environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in financial products and services.
Learn More
Read the Investment & Pension Europe article: Forests into Fixed Income.
Invitation to attend the launch of
Integrating ecological risk in sovereign credit ratings and government bonds
17 October 2011| 13.00 – 17.00 | Washington D.C.
Global Footprint Network and UNEP FI are working with a number of leading financial institutions to collaborate on a transformational project to investigate the linkages between ecological risk and country level risk in sovereign bonds.
The Ecological Footprint and biocapacity trends offer a new way of interpreting the financially material threats and risks that are currently not included in country ratings, investment strategies or risk management systems. The Ecological Footprint combined with biocapacity data provide a novel opportunity to better assess the risks to investments by analyzing resource dependency, trade relationships, commodity costing and risk-stability trends. This is a two-fold project, first it aims to assess the financial materiality of ecological risks relevant for the credit risk evaluation of government bonds; secondly, it will develop a methodology to explore how credit rating agencies, investors and financial information providers can integrate ecological data into their respective models.
Throughout the project a more comprehensive and risk-inclusive understanding of how to evaluate sovereign bonds will be developed. Investments risks can be decreased by gaining a better understanding of resource stability for both biocapacity creditors and national debtors. This project will enable those involved in sovereign bond markets to work towards better inclusion of financially-material environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
We invite you to join the launch on 17 October in Washington D.C ahead of the UNEP FI Global Roundtable. The event is meant for financial institutions with an interest in sovereign bond markets that may consider joining the project, as well as those investors and banks that have already confirmed their participation.
Please confirm you participation by contacting .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Or register online here.
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Humanity is surpassing nature’s budget for the year, and is now operating in overdraft, according to Global Footprint Network calculations for 2011.
Earth Overshoot Day, which this year falls on September 27, helps conceptualize the degree to which we are over-budget in our use of nature. In approximately nine months, we are demanding a level of ecological services – from producing food and raw materials to filtering our carbon dioxide emissions—equivalent to what the planet can provide for all of 2011. From an ecological standpoint, we have effectively spent our annual salary, with a quarter of the year still to go.
“From soaring food prices to the crippling effects of climate change, our economies are now confronting the reality of years of spending beyond our means,” said Global Footprint Network President Dr. Mathis Wackernagel. “If we are to maintain stable societies and good lives, we can no longer sustain a widening budget gap between what nature is able to provide and how much our infrastructure, economies and lifestyles require.”
Meeting the Needs of 7 Billion
This year, Earth Overshoot Day comes as the UN is projecting the human population to reach 7 billion sometime in late October. Current resource trends beg the questions: How will we be able to meet the needs of a growing population? Support the increased consumption as millions in emerging economies join the swelling ranks of the middle class? Provide for the 2 billion alive today that lack access to enough resources to meet basic needs?
Global Footprint Network’s preliminary 2011 calculations show we are now using resources at a rate it would take between 1.2 and 1.5 planets to sustainably support. If we continue on the course estimated by moderate United Nations projections for increasing population and consumption, by well before mid-century, we will need the capacity of two Earths to keep up with our level of demand.
“Providing good lives for the world’s people is certainly possible – but it will not be possible using the resource-intensive development and growth models we have pursued in the past,” said Global Footprint Network Director of Research and Standards Dr. Juan Carlos Morales. “That means finding new models of progress and prosperity that limit demand on ecological assets. It also means maintaining the resources we have left as an ongoing source of wealth rather than liquidating them for fast cash.”
Have We Reduced Global Overshoot?
Ecological Footprint and biocapacity calculations Global Footprint Network made last year placed Earth Overshoot Day a few weeks earlier in the year than this year’s estimates do. This has raised the question as to whether we have reduced global overshoot. The answer, unfortunately, is no. Global Footprint Network is constantly improving the calculations and data sets that are the basis for determining Earth Overshoot Day, and as such the date of Earth Overshoot Day varies from year to year.
Currently, we are undertaking some revisions to the way we compare productivity across different geographies and land types – how we incorporate the output of a forest in Russia, for example, and fishing ground in Chile into a single standardized number. If we look at where Earth Overshoot Day would have fallen over time based on these new assumptions (which we are still testing), we would see overshoot continuing to grow slightly year over year. (Learn more about these revisions, and when Earth Overshoot Day would have fallen over time using our most current assumptions.)
Earth Overshoot Day (based on a concept devised by UK-based new economics foundation) helps conceptualize the gap between what nature can regenerate, and how much is currently required to support human activities. It is not, of course, possible determine the exact moment when we bust our budget. Hence, Earth Overshoot Day is meant as an estimate rather than as an exact date.
Our methodology does change and may continue to shift, but no matter what scientific approach we have used, and what improvements we have implemented to try to account for both human demand and nature’s supply, the trends remain consistent: we are in significant overshoot, and overshoot is growing.
The when is less important than the what: a mounting ecological debt, and the interest we are paying on that debt –food shortages, plummeting wildlife populations, disappearing forests, degraded land productivity and the build-up of CO2 in our atmosphere and ocean, with devastating human and monetary costs.
Overshoot and the Global Economy
In spite of the global recession, resource trends indicate that since October 2008, humanity’s resource demand has been on the rise, although more slowly than in the first eight years of the millennium.
There is more and more evidence that rapidly rising resource costs, in particular for food and energy, played a major role in accelerating, if not sparking, the current global downturn. Now we are trying to reverse the downturn by building jobs and stabilizing our economies. But this depends on a reliable resource supply.
“As resource constraints tighten even more, it’s going to feel like trying to run upward on a down escalator,” Dr. Wackernagel said. “As we look to rebuild our economies to be healthy and robust, now is the moment to come up with ways of doing so that will continue to work and be relevant in the future. Long-term recovery will only succeed, and can only be maintained, if it occurs along with systematic reductions to our dependence on resources.”
We are moving to a new paradigm – from one in which resources were treated as limitless to one in which they must be as prudently spend and carefully managed as financial reserves.
Global Footprint Network and its network of partners is working with individuals, organizations and governments around the globe to make decisions that are aligned with ecological reality – decisions that can help close the ecological budget gap and provide for a prosperous future in the face of changing and challenging resource trends.
Learn more about Earth Overshoot Day
Still wondering, “What is Overshoot?” Watch this video
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Global Footprint Network regrets the passing of Ms. Wangari Maathai, Advisory Council Member and Green Activist
Dr. Wangari Maathai, Kenya’s 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate died in Nairobi while undergoing cancer treatment at age 71.
Prof. Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for starting a movement to reforest Kenya by paying poor women plant trees. She started the Green Belt Movement in 1977, working with women to improve their livelihoods by increasing their access to resources like firewood for cooking and clean water. She became a great advocate for better management of natural resources and for sustainability, equity, and justice. The Green Belt Movement has now planted more than 30 million trees in Africa and has helped nearly 900,000 women, according to the United Nations, while inspiring similar efforts in other African countries.
She was an elected Minister in the Kenyan government from 2002- 2008. She fought tirelessly for sustainable development, democracy and peace. “Wangari Maathai was a force of nature,” stated Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nation’s environmental program to the New York Times. He likened her to Africa’s ubiquitous acacia trees, “strong in character and able to survive sometimes the harshest of conditions.”
She was an extraordinary woman who stood up to authority for decades, as an activist and a champion for a greener world.
In her speech accepting the Nobel Prize, Ms Maathai said she hoped her own success would spur other women on to a more active role in the community. “I hope it will encourage them to raise their voices and take more space for leadership,” she said.
Former U.S. vice president Al Gore also paid tribute saying, “Wangari overcame incredible obstacles to devote her life to service—service to her children, to her constituents, to the women, and indeed all the people of Kenya—and to the world as a whole. She was a warm and devoted mother and I send my condolences to her family. She worked tirelessly both as an elected Member of Parliament and an Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources. She forged new ground for women in Kenya helping shatter what we would call the ‘glass ceiling’ in the United States.”
“Africa, particularly African women, have lost a champion, a leader, an activist. We’re going to miss her. We’re going to miss the work she’s been doing all these years on the environment, working for women’s rights and women’s participation,” said President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said to the BBC. There are calls for her legacy to live on.
Dr. Wangari Maathai was a member of Global Footprint Networks’ Advisory Board since it was formed in 2003. She will be sadly missed.
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Global Footprint Network is pleased to welcome Stephen Groff to our Advisory Council. Stephen Groff is the Deputy Director of the Development Cooperation at the OECD in Paris, where he leads strategic policy analysis. Mr. Groff is responsible for strategic policy analysis on a wide range of development-related economic and political issues. He also plays a central role in the monitoring and evaluation of aid efforts, and serves as acting director of the “Partnership for Democratic Governance” – a new multilateral initiative focused on fragile states. He serves as OECD’s envoy to the G20 Working Group on Development, the G8 Accountability Working Group and the UN Secretary General’s High Level Task Force on Food Security. Mr. Groff is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council and is on the board of directors of the National Peace Corps Association.
Having spent the last 25 years working and living in over 30 developing countries around the world, Mr. Groff has extensive international development expertise.
Prior to joining OECD, Mr. Groff was Deputy Vice President for Operations at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) – a new U.S. bilateral assistance initiative, where he oversaw a broad range of MCC activities and advised the CEO on development issues, strategy and policy while playing a central role in ensuring quality, technical excellence and development impact in MCC operations.He has also served as a senior advisor at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila and as the deputy director and chief economist on a large USAID project designed to encourage private sector development in the southern Philippines. Mr. Groff holds a two-year MPA from the Kennedy School at Harvard University and a B.S. from Yale College.
Groff’s extensive development and policy experience will bring a valuable perspective to our work and research.
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