#MoveTheDate
29
Days
Smart cities take advantage of existing technologies for buildings, industrial processes, and electricity distribution, and cut dependence on energy intensive transportation. If applied worldwide, this could move Earth Overshoot Day by 29 days.
What is the solution?
A smart city manages its resource metabolism carefully through more effectively integrated transport systems, more advanced energy management (particularly in buildings), and more foresight through better sensor and communication systems that allow them to react more swiftly to new circumstances. Smart cities are not just more efficient, but are also able to operate on a smaller resource budget.
This solution improves our resource security in the cities and energy categories.
How does it #MoveTheDate?
Given the rapid urbanization around the world, smart cities are essential to help move the date. For instance, smarter grids and better managed buildings could, with current technology, move Earth Overshoot Day by 21 days. This estimate is based on an assessment of the current potential for improving energy systems, performed by engineers of Schneider Electric and researchers of Global Footprint Network.
How is it scalable?
All cities need to adjust to the reality of increased climate extremes and reduced resource access. Many are not yet on track, hence the potential to expand smart city concepts is still untapped.
What is the solution?
A smart city manages its resource metabolism carefully through more effectively integrated transport systems, more advanced energy management (particularly in buildings), and more foresight through better sensor and communication systems that allow them to react more swiftly to new circumstances. Smart cities are not just more efficient, but are also able to operate on a smaller resource budget.
This solution improves our resource security in the cities and energy categories.
How does it #MoveTheDate?
Given the rapid urbanization around the world, smart cities are essential to help move the date. For instance, smarter grids and better managed buildings could, with current technology, move Earth Overshoot Day by 21 days. This estimate is based on an assessment of the current potential for improving energy systems, performed by engineers of Schneider Electric and researchers of Global Footprint Network.
How is it scalable?
All cities need to adjust to the reality of increased climate extremes and reduced resource access. Many are not yet on track, hence the potential to expand smart city concepts is still untapped.
Recognizing this critical moment in time, Drees & Sommer hosted a series of dialogues on the sustainability transformation, arguing that “never before has the move towards a sustainable transformation been so crucial and necessary. Because since July 29, 2021, we have been living at the expense of our planet Earth, also called Earth Overshoot Day. As of this day, we are living beyond our means and consuming the resources of the future just to manage our present. However, living and working on ecological credits taken from future generations is not a viable and successful long-term strategy. Rather, we need to manage focused change to secure our long-term success.”
The one in Basel focused on smart cities. Drees & Sommer hosted the discussion about measures that can be taken to combat climate change and resource depletion. Topics included infrastructure transformation, carbon-free energy systems, and resource-efficient processes. These powerful transformations are among many possibilities which will bring humanity out of overshoot. The future is created through dialogue.
For more on the Smart City session (which was held in German), check out the event’s agenda here.
There’s no benefit in waiting!
Acting now puts you at a strategic advantage in a world increasingly defined by ecological overshoot. Countless solutions exist that #MoveTheDate. They’re creative, economically viable, and ready to deploy at scale. With them, we can make ourselves more resilient and #MoveTheDate of Earth Overshoot Day. If we move the date 6 days each year, humanity can be out of overshoot before 2050.