Earth Overshoot Day 2025 – we are living beyond our means
On Earth Overshoot Day – the day when humanity has used up all the resources the Earth can regenerate in one year – an uncomfortable truth becomes clear:
We are living beyond our means.
The rest of the year is symbolically “borrowed” – from future generations, from exploited ecosystems, from a nature that is already at its limit.
In 2025, Earth Overshoot Day falls on July 24th – once again far too early.
To be exact: even a whole day earlier than in 2024.
What does that mean?
We consume water, soil, air, and raw materials much faster than they can renew themselves.
Our way of consuming is not sustainable – it is excessive.
And that was one of the reasons why we founded wijld 10 years ago. Since then, we have been producing clothing that is not just less harmful, but actually makes a difference.
Instead of conventional cotton or cheap synthetics, we mainly rely on an alternative, sustainable natural fiber: wood. Resource-conserving harvested, with an almost closed production cycle – especially durable, extremely soft & comfortable on the skin.
The result:
Since our first shirt, we have achieved a lot together with our community:
488,712,000 liters of water saved - drinking water for about 10,650 people for an entire year!
6,841,968 kg of CO₂ saved - enough to circle the Earth by car 1,307 times!
73,307 liters of chemicals saved - that’s about 489 disgusting, stinking, and toxic bathtub fillings!
Numbers that show something:
It can be done differently. Not perfectly, but better.
Not at the expense of the environment, but in harmony with it.
Overshoot doesn’t start on a large scale – but in small ways.
With what we wear. What we buy. And with the question of whether we can still justify our consumption – or just continue out of habit.
Today, the fashion industry accounts for about 10 % of global CO₂ emissions – more than all international flights and shipping combined. It is also responsible for 20% of industrial water pollution. Every year, about 92 million tons of textile waste end up in landfills worldwide.
Almost every second, a whole truckload of clothing is disposed of somewhere – usually far away from us. The ecological and social consequences are devastating.
Synthetic fibers also release microplastics that enter the ocean through washing machines – with massive consequences:
🐟 Animals mistake microplastics for food – fish, mussels, and even plankton ingest them. This can disrupt their digestion, causing them to starve – with full stomachs.
🧬 Plastic accumulates in the food chain – from plankton to humans. Studies show: we also ingest microplastics through seafood, salt, or drinking water.
🧪 Microplastics carry pollutants into the ocean – such as pesticides or plasticizers. These can be toxic and disrupt the hormonal systems of living beings.
🌊 Ecosystems fall out of balance – microplastics affect habitats like coral reefs or seagrass meadows, which actually bind CO₂ and secure biodiversity.
And last but not least: Clothing becomes emotionally overloaded – often as compensation, expression, or reward. At the same time, the value we assign to a garment decreases.
The result: more and more, faster and faster – increasingly meaningless.
A T-shirt may be just a small thing, but the impact it can have is huge.
Of course, we know that a shirt won’t save the world.
But it can be a statement: against fast fashion, against empty promises, against the false belief that growth must be limitless.
We want fashion that lasts – in the closet, in the conscience, in responsibility.
And we hope that Earth Overshoot Day will eventually move further back.
Year by year. Shirt by shirt.
Thank you for being part of this movement, because:
Every shirt counts!
