ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINTS

Ecological Footprints are 'accounting tools' which can be used to measure human impact on the natural world.
All activities require the use of various types of finite natural resources, and these can be converted into land- and water-area equivalents.  An Ecological Footprint is a measure of how much productive land and water an individual, a city, a country, or humanity requires to produce all the resources it consumes and to absorb all the waste it generates, using prevailing technology. This land could be anywhere in the world.
Any category of human consumption can be translated into areas of productive land required to provide resources and assimilate waste products. The ecological footprint is a measure of how sustainable our life-style choices are.  These choices include housing, transport, food, energy and water consumption, other non-consumptive goods and waste disposal.
Ecological Footprint analysis can be and has been applied at many levels and in many areas:

1. Worldwide: Humanity’s Ecological Footprint is as much as 30% larger than the land area available. 
2. Country/Island: Mathis Wackernagel et al have calculated the footprints of 52 nations (www.ecouncil.ac.cr/rio/focus/report/english/footprint/).   Ireland’s ecological footprint is at least one and one quarter times its fair share of world resources, and growing. If everyone on earth lived like the average North American, it would require at least nine earths to provide all the material and energy she or he currently uses.
3. City: London alone requires an area of land 120 times its own size to supply its environmental needs.  See London's latest footprint analysis at www.citylimitslondon.com. 
4. Individual: Several Footprint Lifestyle Calculators are available on the web allowing individuals to assess their own footprint (eg. Best Foot Forward at www.bestfootforward.com) 
5. Business: We can also apply Ecological Footprint analysis to businesses and organisations to make the vital link between corporate environmental performance and sustainability. See The Business of Sustainability in Best Foot Forward's Download page.
6. Lifestyle Choices: compare how much ecologically productive land is necessary to commute by bicycle, bus or car. Most of the car's land is required to absorb CO2. Most of the biker's land is required to provide the extra food for quenching the biker's hunger. 
7. Products & Services: as with Lifestyle Choices the environmental impact of different products can be compared using eco-footprint analysis, eg. tomatoes grown organically vs intensive farming.

Ecological Footprinting is a stimulating way to introduce some of the less obvious but crucial dimensions of human ecology and to highlight some of the ecological implications for the world, country, city, individual, business, product, etc.

Main Organisations
Best Foot Forward, Oxford, UK (Chambers, N, Simmons, C, ++), www.bestfootforward.com
Redefining Progress, Canada (Wackernagel, M, ++), www.rprogess.org

Further Reading
Chambers, N, Simmons, C & Wackernagel, M, 2000, Sharing Nature's Interest: ecological footprints as an indicator of sustainability, Earthscan: London (available from Book STEPs)
Wackernagel, M & Rees, W, 1996, Our Ecological Footprint; Reducing Human Impact on the Earth, New Society Publishers: Canada (available from Book STEPs)
Living Planet Report 2002. WWF-International, Gland, Switzerland. The Living Planet Report is WWF's periodic update on the state of the world's ecosystems - as measured by the Living Planet Index - and the human pressures on them through the consumption of renewable natural resources - as measured by the Ecological Footprint.  http://www.panda.org/news_facts/publications/general/livingplanet/lpr02.cfm
Egroup: To subscribe to the ecofootprints egroup send a blank email to ecofootprints-subscribe@egroups.com.

Thanks to BookSTEPS for compiling this page.

Email: info@cef.ie