If everyone on Earth lived like I do, we’d need an extra Earth (and then some) to support all of us.
Recently, I’ve been learning about the concept of an Ecological Footprint—for a quick introduction, see my recent article Ecological Footprint: How Much Nature Do We Have Left?. In essence, the Ecological Footprint is a metric that compares the demand a person, country, or other group places on the environment to the supply of resources available, in order to determine how sustainable their lifestyle is.
This week, I’m focusing on the personal side of the Ecological Footprint: what’s my individual impact on the planet, and what steps can I take to reduce my footprint?
Calculating your personal Ecological Footprint
Everything we use on a daily basis takes up space. The cotton fibers in our clothes grew on cropland, just like the fruits, vegetables, and grains we find on our plates. The meat you may or may not consume was once an animal that grew and grazed in a pasture or swam in fishing grounds. The carbon dioxide emitted from our vehicles and energy use is eventually taken in and stored away, whether in plants or the ocean. Our homes take up physical space, as do our office buildings, grocery stores, and schools—and the wood that they’re made of was once part of a massive forest before it was harvested for lumber.
Your personal ecological footprint is expressed in units of surface area—it represents how much resource-producing land and water supports your lifestyle. The Ecological Footprint Quiz (linked below) breaks it down into five consumption categories:
- Food: When it comes to the food on your table, your footprint depends on the types of food you eat, whether or not it’s grown locally, and how processed it is. Meat-based diets, for example, often have much larger footprints than vegetarian or vegan diets.
- Shelter: Your footprint doesn’t just depend on how big your house is, although that is factored in. The materials your home is made out of, how energy efficient it is, and whether you share it with five people or none all play a role here.
- Mobility: Whether by plane, train, bus or car, how far you travel—and how you get there—can grow or shrink your footprint considerably.
- Goods and Services: All of the products you buy use raw materials that must be grown or extracted somewhere, while the services (both public and private) that keep your life running smoothly all require various amounts of energy and resources to operate.
Take the Ecological Footprint Quiz here to learn how big your footprint is!
Why reduce your footprint?
My personal Ecological Footprint is 2.1 Earths. This means that the resources needed to sustain my lifestyle use up over twice as much land as my “fair” share—in other words, twice the amount of land that I would receive if we divided all of the Earth’s resource-producing space equally for every person.
This isn’t much, however, compared to the average Ecological Footprint for residents of other top-consuming countries. For those of us in America and Canada, the average footprint is 5 Earths (a decline from our 2005 peak, when it was near six). Qatar and Luxembourg lead the list at 9.2 and 8 Earths, respectively. My personal footprint is closer to that of the average citizen in Argentina, Lebanon, or the Bahamas.
Even so, the average Ecological Footprint worldwide is still 1.7 Earths—we’re using our natural resources unsustainably, at a rate that our single planet can’t keep up with forever. Reducing our personal Ecological Footprints is one way to help bring our worldwide footprint down and contribute to a more sustainable world economy.
Here are a few ways you can take part and shrink your footprint:
- Keep it local: Buying food from local sources, when possible, can reduce the amount of transportation and processing your food needs. Reducing long-distance travel and staying closer to home can also help reduce your carbon footprint.
- Tackle those fixer-upper projects: Install energy-efficient appliances and lights in your home, and make sure your walls and windows are well-insulated, to help save energy (and money!) in the long run.
- Try new things: Reducing resource-intensive meat in your diet and replacing it with vegetarian options can also help reduce your food-based impact. Start by trying a new vegetarian meal every so often!
- A Dose of Climate Optimism from 2021 - January 20, 2022
- When It Comes To Climate Change, Language Matters. Here’s Why. - December 28, 2021
- The EPA Wants To Take A Few Years To Regulate PFAS. Here’s Why. - October 28, 2021