What is ecological footprinting?

A guide to local monitoring to complement the indicators in the UK Government Sustainable Development Strategy

What is ecological footprinting?
The recent UK Sustainable Development Strategy explains that the government has commissioned some research into ecological footprints for the UK.
Ecological footprinting measures the impact of human activity upon nature, by looking at our basic human consumption needs: food, materials and energy (demand) converted into areas of biologically active land required to produce them and absorb wastes (supply). It helps to illustrate how sustainable current consumption and production patterns are and creates a tangible link between local actions and global environmental impacts. This is an essential component of sustainable development that the quality of life indicator set does not currently address adequately.

Ecological footprinting is recommended for use at the regional level by the European Parliament research body, the Scientific Technology Options Assessment (STOA). www.europarl.eu.int

How can ecological footprinting be used?

There are several models and methodologies available to calculate an area’s ecological footprint. This tool is still in its infancy – but is evolving fast – and has both advantages and some important limitations to consider.

Peter Wearmouth, NHS Estates Chief Executive, speaking about Material Health – a footprint study on the NHS: ‘This study provides the first complete overview of the impact of NHS activities in England and Wales on the environment and will be a valuable tool in the debate on the future direction of the NHS’ economic, social and environmental policies.’

www.materialhealth.com
For example, it can be used to raise awareness of environmental programmes, examine the impact of policies on waste or identify unsustainable trends.

Advantages and limitations
Advantages
● Awareness raising – ecological footprinting is a powerful awareness-raising tool and has been found to have resonance for the public, policymakers and businesses. It is widely used for educational purposes – to support Local Agenda 21, environmental awareness programmes and other curriculum activities. Other examples of ecological footprint studies can be found at
www.bestfootforward.com
● Appraisal and scenario planning for policies and services – the data sets used in footprinting can be used to model different scenarios. They can inform strategic planning by examining the impact of policies and actions in areas such as waste, environment, economic and transport planning.
● Trends – the tool, used in conjunction with sustainability appraisal, can help identify unsustainable trends, opportunities for more sustainable management of resources and the challenges we face in the future. The ecological footprinting tool has the potential to feed into the sustainability process. The ODPM’s guidance on monitoring local development frameworks, published in March
2005, is also relevant, as it shows how longer-term monitoring of outcomes links with monitoring of shorter-term plan outputs.

Limitations
● Methodological constraints – existing ecological footprints consider land required to absorb carbon dioxide emissions and provide all renewable resources. This includes the embodied energy of renewable and non-renewable resources. A wide range of emissions are excluded, such as acid rain precursors and health-related emissions. Footprinting does not include the effects of pollution, loss of biodiversity, or use of water, nor does it make a distinction between the use of sustainably or unsustainably-managed resources.
● Transparency – there are some concerns around the robustness and transparency of data with the ecological footprinting tool. It is an aggregated indicator and this needs to be considered in its application. Users of footprinting need to be aware that it should not be assumed that actions to reduce the calculated footprint always have a beneficial net impact on the environment.
● Sensitivity to local factors and comparison issues – the ecological footprinting tool needs to be verified and supported with local data and should also consider economic and social indicators in order to give the whole picture of sustainable development. Different models and techniques are being used to calculate ecological footprints. These use different methodologies and produce different results, which restricts comparability.