Let’s talk Sustainability                    

Are you familiar with the term “Earth Overshoot Day”?

If not, Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s consumption of natural resources exceeds the planet’s ability to regenerate these resources within that same year. And from that day, we live in ecological deficit. The idea behind Earth Overshoot Day is to raise awareness about how much of nature’s resources human activities use compared to how much and how fast the planet can replenish.

The concept is hosted and calculated by an international research organisation, Global Footprint Network. The announcement is made on June 5 every year – on World Environment Day. The calculation entails a comparison of humanity’s ecological footprint and Earth’s biocapacity.

The ecological footprint measures the total of biologically productive land and sea areas required to produce the resources humanity consumes and to absorb the waste produced by human activities, whilst Earth’s biocapacity entails the planet’s ability to generate resources and provide ecological services.

The calculation is done by dividing Earth’s biocapacity by humanity’s ecological footprint and then translating the result into a calendar date. And by now, you might have recognised a number of important concepts – productive land and sea, humanity’s requirements, resource consumption, waste generated and Earth’s ability to absorb waste generated by human activities. I am sure we are all familiar with and taking an active part in more than one of these activities.

By living in the state of ecological deficit spending we are depleting Earth’s natural capital and stealing from future generations.Very similar to spending money from the resources earmarked for your retirement before your actual retirement date. And when one compares the two situations, you realise that persisting with this practice spells disaster.

But, since we know about the impending disaster, we can implement changes to postpone the disaster or prevent the disaster altogether. Or carry on as usual and face the disaster ….

Earth Overshoot Day differs from nation to nation, but the generic date for a year accounts for Earth in general. In 2025 the date was 24 July, whereas for South Africa, the date was 2 July. So for almost half of the year, we have been using the resources of future generations. The international aim is to move the overshoot date by six days per year in order to be out of overshoot by 2050. Which stresses the point – we need to seriously rethink our habits; we need to reconsider our current city planning and urban development strategies in order to ensure enough biological regeneration and avoid excessive human demands.

These considerations should include:

Increase energy-efficient buildings, integrated zoning, compact cities, increased public transportation. But look around you – we are developing our cities (and small towns) at an alarming rate, we do not provide enough energy-efficient buildings, we continue to deplete our natural areas thereby increasing the pressure on our natural resources.

The majority of households are ignorant about waste minimisation, let alone waste prevention, which is the actual first step in waste management …. Think about your own waste generation patterns – how many bags with waste earmarked for landfill do you leave outside your gate every week, how many recycle bags, how accurately is the waste separated between landfill and recyclable waste. Do you compost waste at all?

These are the easy wins.

We need to explore alternative ways to decarbonise our economy and phase out our dependence on fossil fuels.

We need to support those entities who manage and care for the planet – farms, forests, parks, wetlands, lakes and our oceans. These entities form our support system, yet we ignore them and place them under increasing pressure, not realising we are impairing our quality of life and compromising the life of future generations.

Humanity needs fertile soil, clean water and clean air to provide food and physical health required to survive. Vibrant natural ecosystems (oceans, forests) are indispensable to keep the planet liveable.

We need to regulate the climate and absorb carbon emissions.

We need to focus on conservation and restoration, regenerative agriculture and sustainable fishing inter alia to make a difference.

And we need to work out the solutions, because if our society cannot address the important matters, we require regulation – stricter laws to force us to make the required changes. But Mother Nature functions according to stricter laws – if humanity distorts the ecological balances, Nature will retaliate at some stage.

On which side are you going to weigh in – the solution or compounding the problem?