what is the ecological footprint?

bringing sustainability down

to earth

What is the ecological footprint?

• The area a person, community, organisation, or region would need to sustainably maintain their activities.

bringing sustainability down

to earth

How is EF measured?• A way of measuring human impact

• Uses real information about what people eat, how they travel, what waste they produce, how much energy they use and more;

•Information is converted into a measure of space - the amount of space needed by that person to live his/her current lifestyle.

bringing sustainability down

to earth

So really

• …an ecofootprint is a clever way of working out how much of the planet you need to provide for everything you do every day, including what you eat and what you throw away.

bringing sustainability down

to earth

bringing sustainability down

to earth

• How many people living in the world?

• We have to share the planet with…

bringing sustainability down

to earth

• If we shared the space equally between everyone who lives on the planet, we would have around two global hectares each.

• That’s about twice the size of JPCI’s Track for each of us.

bringing sustainability down

to earth

Over to you…

• But do you think that everyone only uses their fair share?

• Do people all over the world each use the same amount of resources and so have the same ‘footprint’?

bringing sustainability down

to earth

bringing sustainability down

to earth

Amount of land required to support our class’ lifestyle

(8ha X 24 students=192 ha)

bringing sustainability down

to earth

• You can work out your very own eco-footprint if you know:– How you travel around and how far you go– How much energy you use (for heating, cooking,

lighting etc.) – How much paper you use and waste you throw away or

recycle– What types of food you eat and– How much water you use