Let's #MoveTheDate! Interzero and its customers reduce global overshoot

Berlin/Cologne. "One World. Zero Waste. Let's #MoveTheDate.” This is the theme of the extensive campaign Interzero has launched to focus on the conservation of natural resources through its work with its customers. In collaboration with the Global Footprint Network, the service provider in the circular economy showed how the recycling of recyclable materials that it initiates reduces the burden on the Earth and is moving Earth Overshoot Day to some extent.

Theoretically, by 28 July humanity will already have used up all of the natural resources that our planet can provide in a given year. “We simply must not accept the increasing exploitation of resources,” said Sebastiaan Krol, CEO of Interzero Circular Solutions. “On the contrary, we are working to create a world without waste where we can use the resources available to us in a sustainable and responsible way. The zero waste solutions we develop for our customers actively contribute to climate action and resource conservation every day and ensure that present and future generations can access the raw materials they need.”

Based on Interzero data, researchers from the Global Footprint Network confirmed that for every euro of value add the company generates with its zero waste solutions together with its customers, global overshoot shrinks by over 28 global square metres. This contrasts starkly with the 2.6 global square metres of overshoot added for every euro generated by the global economy.

That means, per euro of economic output, Interzero gives back ten times more to our planet than the global economy takes on average. Without Interzero, Earth Overshoot Day would be 4 minutes and 20 seconds earlier worldwide. The impact of Interzero’s collaboration with its customers is therefore measurable even on a global scale.

“We at Interzero are proud that thanks to the zero waste solutions we have developed with our customers and partners we give back significantly larger quantities of resources than are consumed. Extending the overshoot by 4 minutes and 20 seconds is a start – and an incentive for us to expand our activities further,” said Sebastiaan Krol emphatically.

The Global Footprint Network bases its calculations on a resource accounting tool called the Ecological Footprint. Using this indicator, the non-profit organisation compares the current resource demand of the global (or a country’s) population against Earth’s capacity for biological regeneration. Valid basic data for Interzero’s contribution to conservation of resources is provided by the “Resources SAVED by Recycling” study carried out by the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT. Once per year, Interzero commissions the scientists to determine the volumes of greenhouse gases and resources saved through the recycling of recyclable materials.

“Worldwide, humans now use the ecological resources equivalent to 1.75 Earths,” said Dr Mathis Wackernagel, President of the Global Footprint Network. “We are therefore very happy to collaborate with Interzero. Companies that follow the One Planet approach and also implement this in their day-to-day business improve everyone’s future prospects – and particularly their own competitiveness.”

When it comes to preserving our natural environment, every little bit counts. Interzero intends to get this across to its staff, customers and business partners in the new campaign and thus set a sustainable movement in motion.

Further motivation will come from an in-house campaign video in which Interzero calls on people to use natural resources more responsibly. „Let’s #MoveTheDate!“

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