July 24, 2025 marks this year’s Earth Overshoot Day - the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources exceeds what the planet can regenerate in a year. From this point forward, we are living on borrowed resources, passing on the cost to future generations, economies, and ecosystems.

But this year, let’s go beyond the headlines.

Let’s talk about how financial systems, business incentives, and data blind spots are still holding us back and what a smarter future could look like.

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Overshoot Is Not Just an Ecological Problem, It’s a Capital Allocation Problem

Overshoot is a symptom of deeper imbalances in our economies:

• Short-termism in finance
• Invisibility of resource risk in supply chains
• A lack of credible data to reward sustainable behaviour

Today, most small businesses still struggle to secure affordable financing for energy upgrades, circular operations, or sustainable sourcing. Why? Because they can’t easily prove their ESG performance. Meanwhile, banks struggle to meet sustainability mandates while dealing with fragmented SME data.

This is how we perpetuate overshoot, not by intention, but by inertia.

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What If Sustainability Paid Off Immediately?

Here's the truth: in many cases, it already does.

• SMEs that invest in energy efficiency, circularity, or emissions reduction often see cost savings, customer loyalty, and greater resilience, long before regulatory deadlines kick in.
• But without the right data infrastructure, these actions don’t translate into cheaper capital or competitive advantage. They stay invisible.

That’s where we believe the biggest unlock lies, not in telling businesses to "do better", but in giving them the tools, metrics, and financing pathways to do smarter.

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What Tese.io Is Doing About It

At Tese.io, our mission is to build the digital infrastructure for the post-overshoot economy, one where ESG performance is measurable, verifiable, and financeable.

We do this by:

• Helping SMEs track resource use and carbon impacts
• Creating audit-ready ESG reports
• Connecting this data to sustainable finance products
• Supporting financial institutions to align portfolios with a resource-efficient future

Because a future where we don’t overspend the planet is a future built on verified data, targeted capital, and practical tools, not just pledges.

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The Clock Is Still Ticking. But the Systems Can Shift

Earth Overshoot Day isn’t just a symbolic reminder. It’s a call to rethink how we value progress, and how our financial systems support or stall real solutions.

Whether you’re an SME trying to reduce waste, a bank rolling out ESG-linked lending, or a policymaker building frameworks, we all have a role to play in shifting from overshoot to balance.

At Tese.io, we’re building for that shift, and helping businesses do the same.

Because in the end, what we track and finance determines what survives.