PHILADELPHIA – Earth Overshoot (EO) today unveiled its “MVP” Sustainability Map, a new online educational resource that assesses global sustainability. The free tool is available from the environmental nonprofit at www.earthovershoot.org and makes the connection between sustainability and a country’s population, economic activity, environmental, civic and societal well-being.
Earth Overshoot’s MVP Map gives countries an essential roadmap to sustainably thrive within the means of nature.
Using data from the World Bank, Global Footprint Network (GFN), and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to calculate the ecological reserves and deficits of individual countries, the Map provides a comprehensive evaluation of national sustainability. Earth Overshoot uses additional metrics including contraception rates, per capita GDP, and endangered species to calculate the sustainable population range for a particular country based on current economic activity as well as a grade for its focus on achieving and maintaining long-term sustainability.
“The MVP Map is the result of listening to stakeholders and their desire for a comprehensive resource to objectively assess sustainability efforts around the world,” said EO Executive Director Terry Spahr. “By providing transparency and accountability, the MVP Map motivates the academic, governmental and nonprofit communities to address the areas that matter most to overall environmental and societal health.
Unlike other sustainability measurement tools, Earth Overshoot translates technical economic and ecological data into language a layperson can understand. It provides the number of citizens a country can sustain given its current consumption of renewable resources. The information is integrated into a full-color, user-friendly graphic interface that is easy to manipulate.
The MVP Map is designed for multiple uses and audiences, including students and educators, nonprofits and environmentalists, political decision-makers and citizens. For instance, the science-based estimates of a country’s sustainable population might be used by nonprofits to justify funding for new family planning projects or by legislators to push for more stringent laws regarding poaching and habitat destruction.
The Map’s name, MVP, reflects two ways humans interact with the Earth: “Man vs Planet” and “Most Valuable Planet.” EO’s MVP Map consists of four sections: Statistics, Country Comments, Photo Gallery and Sustainability Grade. The Map augments EO’s current website, which offers educators, organizations and individuals educational resources and advocacy tools for achieving a more sustainable planet.
About Earth Overshoot
Earth Overshoot is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to making ecological limits central to all personal and public decision-making through targeted education and advocacy. Visit earthovershoot.org
