The Ecological Footprint has proven to be one of the most successful indicators for communicating the concept of environmental sustainability and the physical limits of our planet. The basic concept was developed by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees in the early 1990s. The EF measures how much biologically productive land is required to provide the resources consumed, and absorb the wastes generated, by a population for a certain period of time (in most cases one year). It takes into account available technology, resource management conditions and both land and water surfaces.

In order to calculate an EF, human consumption is divided into different categories (food, living, transport, etc.) and then converted into land use. The annual production of biologically provided resources, called biocapacity, is also measured as part of the EF concept. The resource and regeneration capacity of our planet can not be adequately calculated in monetary terms as climate stability and soil fertility for instance are not reflected in market prices. Biophysical units, rather than money, are therefore used to measure the human consumption of materials, energy and land area. The standard unit of measurement used is a global hectare, which equates to one hectare of global average bioproductivity (Global average bioproductivity per hectare = (total bioproductivity of the Earth’s bioproductive land and water) / (total number of hectares of bioproductive land and water)). Humanity’s Ecological Footprint can also be expressed in terms of the “number of planet Earths” theoretically required to support human resource use and waste generation.

Comparing Ecological Footprints with the real ecological capacity of the Earth allows assessments of whether, and by how much, humankind is overusing natural systems. If the EF of the residents within a region exceeds its biocapacity, the region is said to be in ecological deficit. Such a deficit at the global level is called ecological overshoot. In 2008 for instance, the so-called “World Overshoot Day” was reached on October 6th. This date signified the point at which humankind’s consumption of natural resources in 2008 matched those provided by ecosystems for the entire year. Consequently, from that day forward resources which could not be reproduced in the same year were used, leading to a reduction in the planet’s biocapacity.

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Strengths and weaknesses

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How you can take action

The Global Footprint Network, founded by the “inventor” of the Ecological Footprint, Mathis Wackernagel, in 2003, is an association of researchers and activists concerned with making the Ecological Footprint indicator popular as a measure for ecological sustainability, promoting its application and refining the method. The large network consists of more than 80 government, academic, corporate and CSO partners spanning six continents. Since 2003, it has made significant progress towards achieving its goals , namely by establishing the indicator as a basis for political decision-making. A key activity of the Global Footprint Network is the ‘Ten in Ten Campaign,’ which seeks to implement the Ecological Footprint at the national level in ten countries by 2015. To date, National Ecological Footprint Accounts have been calculated for more than 150 countries.

The Global Footprint Network has gone to great effort to establish long-lasting collaborations with CSOs and other organisations to collect data and improve data sources and the methodology of the Footprint concept. Partnerships with CSOs are essential in order to ensure a transparent and high-quality indicator. Taking part in such research discussions is beneficial for CSOs as the further development of the EF can be modified to their specific needs. CSOs can use the Ecological Footprint to measure and improve global sustainability, raise awareness and campaign for equitable global resource distribution. Many of the world’s largest environmental organisations are already using the EF concept, including the European Environment Agency (EEA), the Finish Ministry of Environment, the nation of Wales, and large CSO’s like NRG4SD (with 50 regional government participants), ICLEI (with 650 local government members worldwide), and WWF[i].

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Case study: The Living Planet Report

This report is published biannually by WWF and aims to document the continued disappearance of nature on our planet. It is the only existing report that draws comprehensive worldwide comparisons of countries’ resource consumption. The first LPR devoted to the analysis of worldwide environmental developments was published in 1998. Since 2000, WWF has used not only the Living Planet Index but also the Ecological Footprint as a sustainability indicator. LPRs have been published in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008[ii], calculating the Footprint of all countries with more than 1 million inhabitants. Since 2004, the Global Footprint Network has served as an official partner of WWF. Using the Ecological Footprint developed by the Global Footprint Network, it is possible to analyse the Footprints of all world regions in a consistent and comparable way. This offers significant advantages for WWF in terms of communicating issues of global resource distribution and fairness[iii] as highlighted in figure 3 below.

Figure: National Footprints as a proportion of the global Footprint[iv]

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[i] Giljum, S., M. Hammer, et al. (2007). Scientific assessment and evaluation of the indicator “Ecological Footprint“. Final project report. Dessau, German Federal Environment Agency.

[ii] WWF (2008). Living Planet Report 2008. Gland, Switzerland, World Wildlife Fund.

[iii] Giljum, S., M. Hammer, et al. (2007). Scientific assessment and evaluation of the indicator “Ecological Footprint“. Final project report. Dessau, German Federal Environment Agency.

[iv] WWF (2008). Living Planet Report 2008. Gland, Switzerland, World Wildlife Fund.

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You can download the whole paper on indicators “Measuring Performance towards Sustainable Consumption and Production – Types of Indicators and Indicator Sets” and other interesting papers of the Action Town project in the Library!