Nobel Sustainability Award makes
front page news in my native city
The news made it also in to the Tages Anzeiger, which used it for its weekly news-quiz ("Who invented the ecological footprint?"). The Nobel Awards and the Nobel Medals were also promoted by the Office of the Mexican President since President Claudia Sheinbaum won a medal. The other medal was awarded to Ban Ki-moon.
After-Party in celebration of the Nobel Sustainability Award
Global Footprint Network board member, Sarosh Kumana, held a lively after-party in celebration of the Sustainability Award from the Nobel Sustainability Trust. Good food and drinks, obviously, fabulous company, and the obligate speeches.
Here is Mathis, addressing the party guests
During the celebration, after thanking all the people who made this Nobel Sustainability Award possible, from Global Footprint Network staff to board, to partners, to supporters and funders, to advisors, and obviously to the Nobel Sustainability Trust and the TUM selection committee, I said:
Global Footprint Network has a lot to show for, and all with a small yet mighty crew. But let’s be real: while there’s plenty to celebrate, the overall progress toward the world we need remains painfully inadequate. And with the glamor of prizes now behind me, I can now be more honest. I can admit that I could have done things better.
If only I’d taken Upton Sinclair to heart sooner! Over a century ago, he nailed it: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” And this may be true for women, too.
That insight now shapes everything I’m dedicated to. Why? Because ignoring it is a surefire way to keep sustainability efforts toothless, or worse—generate resistance to the very transformations we need.
We’re turning that around.
Micro-level: We’re reframing the conversation for businesses and cities. Instead of insisting “What’s sustainable?” we’re asking, “What will actually be valuable in a world of intensifying climate change and resource constraints?” Unsurprisingly, the businesses most likely to gain in value are those that, when becoming larger, reduce global overshoot.
Macro-level: We see opportunities to realign global markets with ecological realities. In essence, any country that does not have resource security, and with it biocapacity, at its core, is, in my humble opinion, putting itself on a suicidal route. This may sound overly dramatic, but given massive global overshoot and the time it takes to rectify one's course, this is unfortunately true. Some nations, like Colombia, are recognizing that overshoot is a massive market failure—and that, because of that, they’re being shortchanged. How can this market failure be corrected? This is a big question we are focused on.
Here are some of the guests
