Living beyond our means. The resource budget for Germany will be exhausted on May 5.
Livestream of the Munich Press Club on Tuesday May 5, 2021 at 10 a.m.
From May 5, Germany will be living beyond its means. That day is Earth Overshoot Day, the day on which Germany alone will have consumed more natural resources than can replenish by the end of the year. Deforestation, soil erosion and increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide are resulting in climate change with severe droughts, forest fires and intense rainfall. Dr. Mathis Wackernagel, co-inventor of the ecological footprint and President of the Global Footprint Network based in Oakland, California, will present how the cut-off date is calculated. He is calling for effective measures to push back the date. Urban mining expert Dr. Matthias Heinrich from the environmental consulting institute EPEA, who advises numerous cities, local government authorities and companies, will explain how raw materials from the resource-intensive construction and real estate sectors can be reused. For the Munich district of Freiham, he calculated that around 2,400 buildings store around 2.2 million tonnes of raw materials, the majority of which are mineral building materials such as cement. They also contain 110,000 tonnes of metals with a value of €20.4 million. In order to establish the circular economy in construction, flagship projects like the Moringa high-rise in Hamburg and ‘The Cradle’ office building in Düsseldorf will have to be emulated in cities throughout Germany. The event will be moderated by Marion Hoppen.
Anyone interested can participate in the Press Club discussion live via the Munich Press Club’s YouTube channel (Link to livestream - German only). A recording of the event will be available there following the livestream.