Friday, 01 November 2024.
Did you know that the Nobel Family recently started also to handle Sustainability Awards out?
For the second year, the Nobel Sustainability Trust will bestow such awards coming 20 November 2024 in a ceremony at the University of California in Berkeley, near San Francisco, United States.
Announced one month ago, one of the three awards will be given to Global Footprint Network co-founder Dr. Mathis Wackernagel, recognizing his leadership in implementing sustainability measures.
But before we share with you the fantastic work - and free tools - developed by Global Footprint Network, let’s dive a little deep into the Nobel Family, already famous for the yearly Nobel Prizes awarded to significative contributions to humankind in the areas of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Economics and Peace.
The Nobel family was a prominent industrial family during the latter part of the 19th century. Led by Alfred Nobel, they built then an extensive business empire, mainly in Sweden and Russia, that included the manufacture of explosives, weapons, oil and other chemical products.
Two other brothers, Ludvig and Robert Nobel, developed their business in Baku, Azerbaijan, a company called Branobel, the foremost Russian oil industry of its time. Along with the Rothschild and Rockefeller families, controlled the global oil industry at the time.
The Nobel family is also behind several inventions and patents:
Alfred Nobel: his most famous invention was dynamite, a safer and easier means of harnessing the explosive power of nitroglycerin; it was patented in 1867 and was soon used worldwide for mining and infrastructure development.
Immanuel, Alfred’s father: pioneered the development of underwater mines, designed some of the first steam engines to power Russian ships, installed the first central heating systems in Russian homes, and was the first to develop modern plywood, cut with a rotary lathe.
Ludvig, Alfred’s brother: the founder of Branobel, together with Robert, and launched the world’s first diesel-driven tugs, tankers, and U-boats, besides building the first European oil pipeline in Baku, Azerbaijan.
This is then the Nobel Family, now with Sustainability Awards through its Nobel Sustainability Trust. So let’s get back to 2024 awards.
Global Footprint Network its widely known for its annual Earth Overshoot Day campaign, contributing to measuring and responding to global ecological overshoot.
Click at the image below to access their online tool. You can analyze countries in terms of:
Ecological Deficit/Reserve
Total Ecological Footprint
Ecological Footprint per Person
Total Biocapacity
Biocapacity per Person
And explore data (menu option):
Deficit/Reserve Trends
Analyze by Land Types
Compare Countries
Sustainable Development
Socioeconomic Relationships
Download Public Data Package
Fantastic insights. Deserve indeed this award.
And here for the press release celebrating this Nobel Sustainability Trust nomination.
As you will read, there are two more winners:
Klaus Butterbach-Bahl, professor, a German biogeochemist and head of the Danish Pioneer Center for Landscape Research in Sustainable Agricultural Future Trends at Aarhus University, for his studies on quantifying the environmental impacts of agriculture, particularly in relation to greenhouse gases; and
Jiuhui Qu, distinguished Professor from Tsinghua University, China and former Director of the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, for developing and technical system to ensure safe drinking water in both urban and rural areas while addressing water risks.
The Nobel Sustainability Trust has entrusted the selection process to the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and you can read more abou it here.
