‘Earth Overshoot Day’: Have we used a year’s worth of natural resources in just 7 months? Verv Follow Aug 1, 2018 · 3 min read

According to the Global Footprint Network, today marks ‘Earth Overshoot Day’ which, by their calculations, means that in just 7 months we have used up a year’s worth of the earth’s natural resources!

Earth Overshoot Day has progressively worsened over the years, with 2018 being the earliest it has ever fallen. What does this mean in practice? It means that we are increasingly using more of nature’s resources than our planet can renew in an entire year through things like overfishing, overharvesting forests, and emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than ecosystems can absorb.

Reducing carbon footprint

In addition, according to the Global Footprint Network, our carbon footprint makes up 60% of humanity’s ecological footprint which is a stark reminder that there is a lot of work to be done.

The 2015 Paris climate agreement has committed to reducing emissions in the EU by 80–95% by 2050 which will require a significant reduction in our carbon footprints. We believe that looking to renewable energy sources but also at innovation surrounding our energy systems will be one of the key drivers of this. It is important that we also look at ways to incentivise the uptake of renewable energy sources. These are all things that we are working on here at Verv.

Verv’s work in the renewable energy space

We have created a peer-to-peer energy trading platform that is designed to allow consumers with solar panels to sell excess energy that they generate directly to their neighbours, providing the best economic value for both parties. We believe that our platform, enabled by the VLUX token, will both incentivise the uptake of renewable technologies like solar panels, and make cheap, green energy accessible to people who never thought they’d be able to benefit from it.

We’re extremely proud to say that in April 2018 we successfully executed the first physical peer-to-peer trade of energy on the blockchain in the UK at our live field trial site in London. We are excited by the progress we are making (much more exciting news coming on that very soon!) and committed to making the current energy system smarter and more flexible for both the benefit of consumers and the environment.

Development of our new infrastructure is progressing quickly and having been shortlisted for the UK Ofgem regulatory sandbox, we are pleased to be helping inform UK legislation around peer-to-peer energy trading as we work towards greener living. Fifteen years after household recycling was introduced, we see it as the norm in the UK. Here at Verv, we not only want to promote a sharing economy but also contribute towards pushing back our Overshoot Day and helping to heal the planet that we all call home so that in the near future affordable, clean energy is the norm, especially for those most in need.