The Ecological Footprint

Ann MacGarryEducation Officer

Centre for Alternative Technology

What is it?

What does it tell us?

What is its relevance for farming/growing in Britain?

Where’s the information?

The ecological footprint is a way of expressing our impact on the

planet.

It shows us the amount of land that is used to provide us with everything that we consume

(energy, food, homes, travelling around, the things we buy) and

also to cope with the wastes that we produce.

These are the Eco-footprint categories of land use -

the size is not intended to represent proportions

It measures it in area of land (and sea) used

bioproductive land arable land used for growing crops (food but also including things like cotton) pasture land for grazing animals forest land used to produce timber, paper and other products

bioproductive sea space products are fish, other seafoods and seaweed

built and degraded land roads, buildings (houses, factories, schools, offices, shops), car parks, airports

energy land the area of woodland needed to absorb the CO2 produced in using the energy

biodiversity land land needed to ensure the protection of the non-human species

It is expressed in global hectares (gha) or planets

Global hectares are more or less than a real hectare

(100mx100m) depending on the productivity

So, how do they measure energy?

One 2003 global hectare can absorb the CO2 released by burning approximately 1 450 litres of petrol per year.Living Planet Report 2006

We only have 1 planet ...

But in Britain we behave as if we had

3

Why do we need the Ecological Footprint?

What does it tell us that we wont get elsewhere?

Our challenge –

Can we provide for the needs of everyone on the planet without increasing

Climate Change or destroying the natural

environment?

and go on providing for the needs of future generations

It gives us some idea of what the limits are

It can help us to prioritise

- a measure of what is possible, of what we could provide for the population of this planet

and of the impact of our

possible solutions

What does it add to what a carbon calculator does?

It includes carbon but because it adds the spatial element it

shows the limits of some solutions

What it does and doesn’t do Attempts to incorporate all aspects of our physical impacts on the planet, but can only do that if those impacts can be related to land use (some pollution can’t be)

Does not give a measure for depletion of finite resources

Does not give a measure of aesthetics or social impacts

Cannot easily produce a quantifiable figure for absolutely every aspect of human life

It is evolving as an analytical tool

It’s authors have an underlying moral philosophy about fairness

and they err on the side of caution in their calculations,

so they will be underestimates,

rather than overestimates

It measures all our consumption

- subtracts exports and adds imports

- so produces different figures from those that relate to UK

energy production and consumption

WWF and SEI have recently produced footprint reports for every local

authority in Britain

http://www.wwflearning.org.uk/ecological-budget/

and then to

http://www.sei.se/reap/download_login.php?region=l

The earth has a surface area of about 51 billion hectare.

Only 15 billion hectares is land.

It has been calculated that there are about 11.3 billion hectares of bio-productive area.

(a considerable amount of the Earth’s surface is rock, desert or covered with ice)

The World population is at least 6.4 billion

So, our individual fair share of the 11.3 billion would be

1.8 hectares eachand it’s getting smaller all the time…...

2001 data, LPR 2004 p34

So, how are we doing?

This what we are consuming But, how is it possible to consume more

than 1 planet’s worth of resources?

Humanity’s Ecological Footprint

Living Planet Report 2006

This is part of the answerAnother part is Climate Change

Living Planet Report 2006

WWF Living Planet Report

2006

Living Planet Report 2006

We are using 2.2gha per person

Living Planet Report 2006

How is it changing over time? Is poverty reducing?

EF of different areas -

Britain 5.45

South East 6.9York 6.7

London 6.63 Scotland 5.35

Wales 5.25

What direction should we be taking in Land use?

Food and drink 24.5 % Services 4.5 % Energy 17 % Capital invest.14 % Travel 15 % Government 8 % Holidays 2 % Consumables 12 % (this is the stuff we buy, but not food)

www.walesfootprint.org

In Wales meat is 9.5% of our total footprint, 3% is drinks while fruit, vegetables, bread and cereals

are only 4%.

Taking Stock 2004

methane

York report

York report

For UK food consumption as a whole:•Over 31% by weight is imported from overseas, of which over 99% arrives by ship.

• The UK agricultural imports chart ... shows year to year fluctuations but some very cleartrends: imports of ‘agricultural raw materials’ in particular have doubled each decade from 1970

Taking Stock

A large proportion of the food footprint – 44% for eating in and 26% for eating out – is due to the consumption of meat products..

0.88 gha/cap for eating at home

0.41 gha/cap for eating out.

the actual amounts eaten -

578 kg/cap eaten at home

61 kg/cap eaten out

the service of providing food in a restaurant involves various service activities and is less efficient than food preparation at home.

30% of the footprint for food eaten out comes from soft drinks (10%) and alcoholic drinks (20%).

Taking Stock

Over 1 million tonnes per year of food and drink goes to waste directly, of which 88% goes to landfilldisposal:

700,000 tonnes of household food is wasted, at an estimated rate of 14% of the total.

386,000 tonnes of catering food is wasted, at an estimated rate of 43% of the total.

Taking Stock

Issues

What’s in season?

Wastage

Processing

Content of diet

Food miles

Organic production

So,

Energy used on farms is not so much

Energy associated with processing is more significant

Direct land use varies enormously - highest for animal products

Food miles is an issue when it is air transport or many road miles (and

impact can be increased by refrigeration etc.)

A win-win situation? Harvard food pyramid

What is the impact of our large food footprint on the rest of the world?

It is linked to -

low wages and exploitation (inc health risks from pesticide use)

climate change

environmental degradation

human rights violations

violence

Wales 2004 p 75

Global hectares per gigawatt hour of energy

0 50 100 150

coal

fuels

natural gas

wood extensive

wood intensive

hydropower

solar electricity

solar heating

windpower

gha/GWh

Wales 2004 p 75

It is also extremely effective as an

educational tool

General awareness raising about the fact that our lives have an impact on the planet

It is also extremely effective as an educational tool

Awareness raising about the degree to which our own consumption in Britain exceeds the capacity of the planet (the 3 planets)

and that 80% of the global population consume so little

A tool for analysing our impact to see what the relative significance is of different parts of our lifestyle – breaking it down into components.

Food33%

Things we buy24%

Energy21%

Roads, buildings

etc13%

Transport9%

A tool to work out how we could change our footprint – for ourselves individually, a school, area or for the region or country – creating visions of a sustainable future

Venturer camp 2002 vision for a reduced footprint

913

2124

33

100

3.697.8 7 6.24

16.5

41.23

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Transport Roads,buildings etc

Energy Things webuy

Food Total

before

after

It offers opportunities for role play, cartoon, metaphor, creative thinking

It offers opportunities for role play, cartoon, metaphor, creative thinking

and spins off other learning

Sources of info – Calculate your own footprint at - www.myfootprint.org

SEI (Stockholm environment Institute) reports -http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/sei/IS/sustain.html and look athttp://www.regionalsustainability.org/

the Living Planet Report 2006 – http://www.panda.org

The long, detailed and interesting footprint report of the South East of England at –www.takingstock.org

Redefining Progresswww.RedefiningProgress.org/ecologicalfootprint

Best Foot Forwardwww.bestfootforward.com

Sharing Nature’s Interest – book

CAT Where’s the Impact pack – www.cat.org.uk/edresources