Sustainable Business AA 2021-2022: What Has Happened in The Last Few Decades? Why Now The Call Is Urgent?

Sustainable Business AA 2021-2022
What has happened in the last few decades?

Why now the call is urgent?
17
Population growth, urbanization and

ecological footprint
18
From 1 billion in 1800 to

more than 10 billions in 2100
From less than 4 billions in

1972 to about 7.9 billions in
2021
World count
population
https://www.worldo
meters.info/world-
19 population
Silvana Signori 1
World population - distribution
21
https://globaia.org/great-acceleration
The Ecological Footprint
• Ecological Footprint accounting

measures the demand on and supply of
nature.
• On the demand side, the Ecological
Footprint measures the ecological
assets that a given population requires
to produce the natural resources it
consumes (including plant-based food
and fiber products, livestock and fish
products, timber and other forest
products, space for urban
infrastructure) and to absorb its waste,
especially carbon emissions.
https://youtu.be/EjyrAHzthTo
22
Silvana Signori 2
The Ecological Footprint

• The Ecological Footprint tracks the use of six
categories of productive surface areas:
cropland, grazing land, fishing grounds,
built-up land, forest area, and carbon
demand on land.
• On the supply side, a city, state or
nation’s biocapacity represents the
productivity of its ecological assets
(including cropland, grazing land, forest land,
fishing grounds, and built-up land). These
areas, especially if left unharvested, can also
absorb much of the waste we generate,
especially our carbon emissions.
• The Ecological Footprint can be calculated
for a single individual, city,
region, country and the entire planet.
23
Calculate your own ecological

footprint at
http://www.footprintcalculator.org
and share your results
https://www.dw.com
More info at:

https://www.footprintnetwork.org
Silvana Signori 3
Humanity’s
Ecological
Footprint
Humanity’s Ecological footprint
World
Earth Overshoot Day

Earth Overshoot Day marks the date
when humanity’s demand for ecological
resources (fish and forests, for instance)
and services in a given year exceeds
what Earth can regenerate in that year.
We keep growing this deficit by
liquidating the Earth’s natural capital
and accumulating waste, primarily
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Earth’s Biocapacity /
Humanity’s Ecological Footprint x 365 =
Earth Overshoot Day
28
Silvana Signori 4
https://www.overshootday.org/new
sroom/country-overshoot-days/
“Our data show that we use as much from nature as if we lived on

1.75 Earths, yet we only have one. This is not a judgement, just a
measurement. In this context, bringing human activity back within
the ecological budget of our one planet is not about doing the noble
thing or easing our guilty conscience. It is about choosing self-
interest and what works. We will move out of ecological overshoot.
Why choose to get there by disaster rather than by design?”
MATHIS WACKERNAGEL, Founder and President of Global Footprint Network
30
Chernobyl 1986… … Chernobyl 35 years later
Silvana Signori 5
• Humanity is turning from

Urban population rural to an urban species
• Global urbanization is
seemingly unstoppable
worldwile
• In developed and
developing countries
cities offer more
opportunities
• Today, there are more
than 300 cities of 1 mil.
people and 22 megacities
of over 100 mil. people (16
in developing countries).
Source: Ulrich, Weizsäcker and
Wijkman, 2018
Why is it a problem?
32
La parte di immagine con ID relazione rId3 non è stata trovata nel file.
https://norwegianscitechnews.com/2018/0
5/new-study-estimates-carbon-footprints-
13000-cities/
La parte di immagine con ID relazione rId3 non è stata trovata nel file.
33
Silvana Signori 6
Cities’ ecological footprint
• London ecological footprint = 125 times the

surface area of the city itself (= England’s entire
productive land)
• A tipical North American city with a population of
650,000 would require 30,000 square km of land
to meet its domestic needs.
• A simial size city in India (with significantly lower
living standards and a predominantly vegetarian
diet) would require just 2,800 square km.
A possible trend ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDS_BqDeZ4k&li
st=PLbkp8T4KsMtrdNSzt3XOXvHHo6Z4itF1j&index=92
35
Ecological footprint and

megacities
36
Silvana Signori 7

Sustainable Business AA 2021-2022: What Has Happened in The Last Few Decades? Why Now The Call Is Urgent?

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Sustainable Business AA 2021-2022

What has happened in the last few decades?

Population growth, urbanization and

From 1 billion in 1800 to

From less than 4 billions in

World population - distribution

The Ecological Footprint

• Ecological Footprint accounting

The Ecological Footprint

Calculate your own ecological

More info at:

Humanity’s Ecological footprint

Earth Overshoot Day

“Our data show that we use as much from nature as if we lived on

MATHIS WACKERNAGEL, Founder and President of Global Footprint Network

Chernobyl 1986… … Chernobyl 35 years later

• Humanity is turning from

Cities’ ecological footprint

• London ecological footprint = 125 times the

A possible trend ...

Ecological footprint and

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