Syllabus Edition

First teaching 2015

Last exams 2025

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How to Reduce Ecological Footprints

Alistair Marjot

Written by: Alistair Marjot

Reviewed by: Bridgette Barrett

Reducing Ecological Footprints

  • Ecological Footprints (EFs) measure the impact of human activities on the environment

    • They do this by calculating the area of land and water needed to sustain a particular human population

    • An EF is measured in global hectares (gha) per capita (i.e. hectares per person)

  • EFs take into account factors such as food consumption, transportation, and energy use

    • EFs can be used to compare the sustainability of different lifestyles, businesses, and even whole countries

    • If the EF of a lifestyle, business or country exceeds the area available to the population (also known as the biocapacity - the amount of resources that the planet can provide sustainably), it means that it is not sustainable in the long term

  • To reduce an EF, it is important to adopt more sustainable practices such as reducing meat consumption, using renewable energy sources, and using public transport or walking instead of driving

  • EFs are a useful tool for promoting sustainable development and for raising awareness about the impact of human activities on the environment

fEGRrVY6_1-4-5-ecological-footprints

The ecological footprint of various countries, expressed as the number of hectares of land required to sustain the current standard of living in that country - Elias, Scott (2015) Global Change Impacts on the Biosphere

1-4-5-ecological-footprints-map

The ecological footprint of various countries can also be displayed in map-form

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