This year, Earth Overshoot Day fell on August 8, 2016. This was the date that people effectively depleted Earth's resources to live sustainably for the year 2016. From August 9 onward, resource consumption proceeded in debt.
The sustainability non-profit Global Footprint Network has been announcing Earth Overshoot Day for the past 10 years. Since the first one was announced in an October, the Day has gradually shifted to earlier calendar months--which indicates that the planet's finite yearly resources are being consumed faster than ever.
To calculate the specific date each year, researchers take the net amount of natural resources currently available on Earth. This they divide by the amount of the planet's resources that have been used up--also known as the global ecological footprint. This figure is multiplied by the number of days in a year.
The unit for an ecological footprint is the amount of land used through consumption, counting the land that is needed to process waste. Annual global footprints show that humanity has been in perpetual overshoot since the 1970's, and of April 2016, Earth requires 1.5 years to regenerate the resources it consumes in a year.
Individuals who wish to help reduce global waste can switch to solar or wind-generated electricity, convert to a vegetarian lifestyle, and be more environmentally conscious of paper waste. But individual mindfulness alone is insufficient to counteract the sliding annual date of Earth Overshoot Day. Well-directed global climate change mitigation policies can bring much more efficient improvement. One such example is the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Collective efforts from major companies are another way to create efficient change. Eight globally-recognized companies that have incorporated greener habits are Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), Johnson and Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Nike (NYSE: NKE), Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), and Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX).
Classed separately are environmentally beneficial companies, which actually create positive change in the environment, rather than minimizing damage. These include household products companies Seventh Generation and method, craft beer maker New Belgium Brewing and outdoor equipment manufacturers Go Lite and Patagonia.
One popular planet-saving habit practiced by environmentally sound companies is ethical and sustainable sourcing. (Starbucks is one top green company that actively practices this.) Ethical and sustainable sourcing requires companies to understand the various businesses which contribute the raw materials (eg. for Starbucks, Arabica coffee beans, tea, and cocoa) and ensuring that each business involved is given an ethical and sustainable contract. For its manufactured goods and merchandise, Starbucks collaborates exclusively with suppliers sharing the same values of adhering to ethical and sustainable practices. For the large businesses that adhere to them, these practices ensure that every step of whole chains of supply can be preserved as "green" business endeavors.
The most environmentally destructive corporations include financial companies like T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW), BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), and Invesco (NYSE: IVZ), materials corporations like Monsanto (NYSE: MON), and Allegheny Technologies (NYSE: ATI), and energy corporations like Peabody Energy (OTCMKTS: BTUUQ) and Consol Energy (NYSE: CNX). Food/beverage/tobacco manufacturers count Bunge (NYSE: BG), Post (NYSE: POST), ConAgra Foods (NYSE: CAG) and ADM (NYSE: ADM) as among the most toxic, and for utilities companies, Ameren (NYSE: AEE), Scana (NYSE: SCG) and FirstEnergy (NYSE: FE).
Among the planet-destroying habits practiced by environmentally damaging companies are: heavy use of herbicides (which is linked to cancer and birth defects, and is practiced by Monsanto) and mining and coal production (which is linked to disrupted environments and damaging emissions, and is practiced by Peabody).
Some of the most destructive habits for the planet include over-using electricity or water, failing to recycle or compost, excessively using paper and plastic, operating motor vehicles with harmful fume emissions and eating meat from environmentally unfriendly farms. On the flip side, some of the most environmentally beneficial habits include seeking greener transportation (eg. walking and biking), buying organic products (for food, furniture, and clothing), reusing plastic containers and avoiding harsh substances for household use.
Like companies, countries can also be ranked by environmental efficiency. Because there are so many factors that contribute to a country's ecological footprint (e.g. energy expenditure, standard of living, and population size), national ecological footprints range widely. Many countries have national footprints several times the planetary footprint. If the entire world lived like the country with the largest footprint (Australia), we would need 5.4 Earths. Other countries like India (0.7) expend less than the collective footprint. Nevertheless, India's rampant fertilizer-triggered soil degradation ranks it among the world's most pollutive countries.
The top "worst offender" countries, in ascending order, are: Peru, Australia, Russia, India, Mexico, Japan, Indonesia, China, the US, and Brazil. The greenest countries, in ascending order, are Iceland, Finland, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Costa Rica, Norway, and Sweden. (Despite its wealth of manufacturing plants, population size, and air pollution, China has an ecological footprint of only 2.0, as of 2016. However, it sits on the "worst offender" list for its severe water pollution and CO2 emissions.)
Improving energy efficiency requires that nations emphasize three targets for its people. They must strive to be environmentally conscious on a public scale, health conscious and innovative.
The least environmentally friendly nations should also strive to learn game-changing "green" habits from their environmentally friendly counterparts. Iceland's green advantage comes from making its clean waters a priority and deriving 85% of its energy locally from renewable sources like hydropower and geothermal energy. Denmark monitors greenhouse gas emissions very strictly. The United Kingdom prioritizes overall population health (as indicated by a low child mortality rate), water sanitation and air quality. The Netherlands raised high public awareness by combining a well-integrated environmental education curriculum for schools, and an industry-led advocacy group. Other green strategies include utilizing aquaculture (as opposed to agriculture), utilizing renewable energy sources, employing legislative policies in favor of the environment, and recycling on a national level.
While some of these strategies are more easily achieved in smaller, comparatively homogeneous nations, bigger nations must start somewhere. For a planet that has been in continual debt to its own resources for almost 50 years, it is clear that change is both necessary and urgent.