Mathis Wackernagel is a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

-born

sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

advocate. He is President of Global Footprint Network, an international sustainability

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

with offices in

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

, California, and Geneva, Switzerland. The think-tank is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

that focuses on developing and promoting

metrics Metric or metrical may refer to: Measuring * Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement * An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement Mathematics ...

for sustainability. After earning a degree in

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, he completed his Ph.D. in

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

and

regional planning Regional planning deals with the efficient placement of land-use activities, infrastructure, and settlement growth across a larger area of land than an individual city or town. Regional planning is related to urban planning as it relates land ...

at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

in Vancouver, Canada in 1994. There, in his doctoral dissertation under Professor William Rees, he worked with Rees in creating the

ecological footprint The ecological footprint measures human demand on natural capital, i.e. the quantity of nature it takes to support people and their economies. It tracks human demand on nature through an ecological accounting system. The accounts contrast the biolo ...

concept and developed the accounting methodology for it. He has worked on sustainability issues for organizations in Europe, Latin America, North America, Asia and Australia. Wackernagel previously served as the director of the Sustainability Program at Redefining Progress in Oakland, California (1999 - 2003), and directed the Centre for Sustainability Studies / Centro de Estudios para la Sustentabilidad in Mexico (1995-2001). In 2004, he was also adjunct faculty at SAGE of the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

. In 2010, he was appointed Frank H. T. Rhodes Class of 1956 Visiting Professor at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

(1 July 2011 – 30 June 2013). Wackernagel was a member of the Global Business Network. Wackernagel has said that " Overshoot will ultimately liquidate the planet's ecological assets." He also noted that "We look at all the problems in separate ways – climate change or biodiversity loss or food shortage – as if they were occurring independently. But they’re all symptoms of the same underlying theme: that our collective metabolism, the amount of things that humanity uses, has become very big compared to what Earth can renew."

Awards and honors

Università di Siena awarded Mathis Wackernagel wit
an honorary degree
on March 21, 2025, for which he provided a
lectio magistralis
. On November 21, 2024, the Nobel Sustainability Trust awarded Wackernagel with th
Award for Leadership in Implementation
It is the second year the Trust has bestowed this honor; th
first time
they imparted the implemenation award to Nicolas Stern. In November 2022, the University of Stirlin
presented Wackernagel
with an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

. In his address
he proposed
a "question with which to start everything – whether you design a policy or develop any new strategy .. do you love people?" In 2018, Wackernagel an
Zhifu Mi
were the joint recipients of the second ''World Sustainability Award''. Wackernagel, along with Susan Burns, received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship from the Skoll Foundation in 2007. He received an honorary doctorate from the

University of Bern The University of Bern (, , ) is a public university, public research university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern. It was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the canton of Bern. It is a comprehensive university offering a br ...

in 2007, a 2006

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named th ...

Award for Conservation Merit, and the 2005

Herman Daly Herman Edward Daly (July 21, 1938 – October 28, 2022) was an American ecological and Georgist economist and professor at the School of Public Policy of University of Maryland, College Park in the United States, best known for his time as a ...

Award of the US Society for Ecological Economics. With Global Footprint Network, he received the International Prize Calouste Gulbenkian 2008 (Lisbon, Portugal) “dedicated to the respect for biodiversity and defense of the environment in man’s relationship with nature.” In 2013, Wackernagel received the ''Prix Nature Swisscanto''. Prior, he received the ''2012 Binding-Prize for Nature Conservation'', the bi-annual Kenneth Boulding Award of the

International Society for Ecological Economics International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

, and the Blue Planet Prize of the Asahi Glass Foundation (the latter two with William E. Rees). He also received the ''2011 Zayed International Prize for Environment'' in the category "action leading to positive change in society." The Zayed prize recognized Wackernagel's contribution to “translate ngthe complexity of humanity's impact on the environment and natural resources into a more understandable and actionable form. The concept of ‘ecological limits' and relating the demands of human beings to the planet's available ecological resources, has attracted and is catalyzing action among governments, business and civil society." The (En)Rich List ranked Wackernagel as the 19th of the 100 most inspirational individuals whose contributions enrich paths to sustainable futures.

Published works

* Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth (with Williams E. Rees, and Phil Testemale, 1995, New Society Publishers) *
Ecological Footprint: Managing our Biocapacity Budget
' (with Bert Beyers, 2019, New Society Publishers) * Sharing Nature's Interest (with Nicky Chambers and Craig Simmons, 2001) * The Winners and Losers in Global Competition: Why Eco-Efficiency Reinforces Competitiveness: A Study of 44 Nations (with Andreas Sturm, 2003) * Der Ecological Footprint. Die Welt neu vermessen. (with Bert Beyers) ** 2010, ** 2016, (with updated figures) * MDPI-Sustainability, 2019,
Defying the Footprint Oracle: Implications of Country Resource Trends
(open access) * Frontiers in Energy Research, 2017,
Making the Sustainable Development Goals Consistent with Sustainability
(open access)
Planetary Prosperity Means Zero Carbon
Impakter.com, 2017
Are the Sustainable Development Goals Already in Trouble?
Impakter.com, 2017

Interviews with Wackernagel

* 5th Switzerland.
A Man's Fight for our Survival.
" also available o
Apple
January 2023 * Cosmos Magazine.
Finding Australia’s biocapacity: Dr Mathis Wackernagel explains biocapacity and how it’s calculated
April 2022 * Swissinfo.com.
The Swiss man behind the Ecological Footprint
April 2022 * Research Outreach.
Measure what you treasure
April 2019 * Natural Intelligence. PodCast.
Balancing our Account with Nature
September 2019 * La Vanguardia (in Spanish).

November 2017

Websites and videos

Website of Mathis Wackernagel

Website on Global Footprint Network

Website on Earth Overshoot Day

Website on Switzerland's resource security - «Watch out, dear Switzerland!»

Video: Choosing your future in the era of ecological overshoot
, David Lin & Mathis Wackernagel
RE:WIRED Green
San Francisco, September 2022
Video: How much Nature do we have? How much do we use? , Mathis Wackernagel, TEDxSanFrancisco 2016

Video: Mathis Wackernagel on Whole Earth Systems , at the 2018 Saint Louis Climate Summit

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wackernagel, Mathis 1962 births Living people Sustainability advocates People associated with criticism of economic growth People from Basel-Stadt