Sustainability through longer textile life

Earth Overshoot Day, 24 Days Earlier in 2021 vs 2020

We’ve already consumed more this year than the planet can regenerate. Earth Overshoot Day is the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. In 2021, it fell on July 29. It came exactly 24 days earlier in comparison with 2020 (August 22) and it marked a return to the levels of resources consumption before Corona (in 2019, the Earth Overshoot Day fell also on July 29).

Many solutions exist that can be adopted at the community level or individually to significantly impact the kind of future we invest in, one decision at a time: how we produce the food we eat, how we move around, how we power ourselves, how many children we have, and how much land we protect for wildlife. Reducing the carbon Footprint by 50% would move the date by 93 days.

With food systems currently using 50% of our planet’s biocapacity, what we eat matters. Policies aimed at reducing the carbon-intensity of food and the impact of food production on biodiversity – while improving public health – deserve special attention, as highlighted by joint research between Global Footprint Network and the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition. Cutting food waste in half would move Earth Overshoot Day 13 days.