Earth Overshoot Day 2023: Reversing the Clock for a Sustainable Future

NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / August 2, 2023 / SAP

Foto: Accesswire

Today is Earth Overshoot Day 2023, a stark reminder that we have already used up all the resources on our planet for the current year. According to National Footprints and Biodiversity Accounts, this year's alarming milestone falls five days later than last year. However, this delay is nothing to cheer about. Only one of the five days accounts for genuine advancements. The remaining four days are due to integrating improved data sets into the accounts' latest edition.

As leaders, it is our responsibility to drive change and create a positive impact. We can help create a more harmonious relationship between humanity and our planet by embracing sustainability, fostering innovation and collaboration, and advocating for policy change.

I've heard Global Footprint Network CEO Steven Tebbe's warning loud and clear: he states that persistent overshoot leads to more prominent symptoms, including unusual heat waves, forest fires, droughts, and floods. This, in turn, increases the risk of compromising food production. His conclusion: it is in the interest of cities, countries, and business entities to foster their own resource security if they want to prosper - to the benefit of the Earth as well.

It's encouraging to see how organizations across the globe collaborate for a sustainable future that will help us #MoveTheDate. According to the Science Based Target initiative, 5,500 companies are taking actions to reduce emissions. More than 2,100 companies out of those have made net-zero commitments. Businesses have realized that it is important to incorporate sustainability in their business strategies to mitigate the evolving investor pressure, consumer demand, and regulatory constraints. As the 2023 IPCC AR6 report rightly pointed out, more rapid and far-reaching transitions across all sectors and systems are necessary to achieve deep and sustained emissions reductions and secure a livable and sustainable future for all.

But how can we make this happen? Actually, there are several levers that might significantly move Earth Overshoot Day closer to year's end - and companies like SAP can contribute to them.

Reducing the carbon component of humanity's ecological footprint by 50% would move Earth Overshoot Day by 93 days, or more than three months.*

The change with the biggest impact as identified by the Global Footprint Network is carbon reduction. SAP has continuously expanded its portfolio of carbon reduction measures since 2009. It became the first German company to work with science-based emissions reduction targets in 2017. Two years later, SAP was one of the first seven global companies to have 1.5°C-aligned reduction targets for 2050. We accelerated this timeline last year by committing to becoming a net-zero emissions enterprise by 2030, 20 years earlier than the original target.