What is the ecological footprint? Sustainability is notoriously difficult to measure. But to live sustainably we should be able to live off the planets natural bio-productivity. That is, we should off the land (and sea) rather than extracting non-renewable capital. As an example, we should be using renewable energy - biomass, solar or wind (which are sustainble in the longer term) rather than fossil fuels which are both limited and result in climate change through pollution. EF is an accounting methodology that uses land and sea bio-productivity. Lot more interesting that money accounting - EF uses land as a currency rather than money. Why is land so much better than money? The area a person, community, organisation, or region would need to sustainably maintain their activities.

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.

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.

How many people living in the world? We have to share the planet with…

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.

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’?

Amount of land required to support our class’ lifestyle (8ha X 24 students=192 ha)

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