In the context of Earth Overshoot Day this July 29, Schneider Electric announced its commitment to promote one-planet compatibility as the necessary framework for long-term business success. Schneider Electric’s breakthrough White Paper lays out the detailed approach and supporting metric for one-planet compatibility and humanity’s prosperity. It was developed in partnership with the Global Footprint Network, the international sustainability organization that pioneered the Ecological Footprint.

Earth Overshoot Day marks the day when human demand for food, fiber, timber, and carbon absorption (global Ecological Footprint) exceeds the amount of biological resources that Earth’s ecosystems can renew in the whole year (global biocapacity). This year, Earth Overshoot Day lands on the earliest date ever, July 29, according to Global Footprint Network. This date highlights that humanity is using biological resources 1.75 times faster than nature can renew them, worsening the ecological deficit for four months of the year through depleting Earth’s natural capital. It is said that humanity “uses” 1.75 planets. Carbon emissions make up 60% of the total Ecological Footprint.

Since the world fell in ecological overshoot in the early 1970s, Earth Overshoot Day keeps creeping up the calendar. Thirty years ago, it landed in October, then late September twenty years ago. After a recent slowdown, the pace has picked up again in the past two years because of an uptake in carbon emissions.

The trend is reversible

One-planet compatibility requires moving the date of Earth Overshoot back to December 31 or beyond. Decarbonizing the economy is a powerful lever to #MoveTheDate. Cutting the global greenhouse gas emissions in half would move the date by three months, according to the Global Footprint Network. For the last two years, Schneider Electric has been working with Global Footprint Network to assess solutions. Research by these two organizations indicates that if 100% of the existing building and industry infrastructure were equipped with readily available energy efficiency and renewable energy technology from Schneider Electric and its partners, assuming no shift in human habits, the world could move the date back by at least 21 days. This means that energy retrofits alone could make a difference of three weeks. For added perspective, if we move Earth Overshoot Day back by five days into the future every year, we will be back to one-planet compatibility before 2050, in line with the Paris Climate Agreement.