Data collection

 

The collection of data is one of the most important factors of the ecological footprints.  It is this information that will feed into all categories and digest into the footprint.  It is important because it is the foundation of the calculation and if this data is imprecise the value of the footprint is impaired and would not be considered as a useful instrument for sustainable development.

 

Since 1984 the Worlds Resources Institute has provide statistical information regarding the environment, social and economic.  This information has proved invaluable for footprinting, however international statistics often focus mainly on production and trade, omitting consumption.  EarthTrends is an online collection of information that has been put together by the World Resources Institute it collates data from various sources and puts them into a more versatile format. There are over thirty-seven different sources to this website and for the purposes of this text I am not listing them all and would advise visiting the website to view them. [1]

 

To simplify data collection, it is found useful to adopt data classification used for official statistics.   On this basis, to separate consumption into five major categories:

1.                  Food

2.                  Housing

3.                  Transportation

4.                  Consumer Goods

5.                  Services.

These categories can be subdivided as required for more distinguished analyses.

For each consumption item, a detailed analysis would encompass all the embodied resources that go into production, use and disposal of that item.

 

The ecological footprint of a population is estimated by calculating how much land and water area is required on a continuous basis to produce the five major consumption categories, and to assimilate all the wastes generated, by that population.  This is achieved using a simple classification of ecological productivity involving land categories.

 

The data for each category reflects not only the space directly occupied by individual consumption items but also the land consumed in producing and maintaining them.

 

 

 

Calculation Procedure

1. Estimate the land area appropriated per capita for the production of each major consumption item. Dividing the average annual consumption of that item obtained from data sources by its average annual productivity or yield does this:

 

Example:

How much forest area is dedicated to providing pulp-wood for the paper by the average Britain?

 

Each Britain consumes about 207kg of paper every year, the production of each metric ton of paper in the UK currently requires 1.8m³.

For ecological footprint analyses an average wood productivity of 2.3m³/ha/yr is assumed.

 

207 kg paper per capita per year x 1.8m³/t (production metric ton of wood)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =  0.16 ha/capita

1,000 kg/t x 2.3m³/ha/yr (average annual productivity)

 

The estimated forest area appropriated per capita for the production of paper is 0.16 hectares.

 

 

2. The total ecological footprint of the average person the per capita footprint is calculated by summing all the ecosystem areas appropriated by all purchased items in his or her annual shopping basket of consumed goods and services:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Footprint Breakdown, consumption – land use matrix table

Cell entries = ecologically productive land (ha/capita)

 

The diagram is taken from the UK footprint calculation indicating the summing up process highlighting all the ecosystems

3. Finally we obtain the ecological footprint of the study of population by multiplying the average per capita footprint by population size:

 

            5.46 ha/capita x 58,974,000 = 321,998,040 ha/ UK population

The Ecological Footprint of individuals and whole economies will vary depending on income, prices, personal and prevailing social values as they affect consumer behaviour, and technological superiority.

 

What can we do with it?

 

Once the data has been collected and the footprint has been calculated, it can be used as both an indicator to show trends over time, to compare between countries, regions, organisations, buildings and individuals.  Data sets can also be used to model differing scenarios and examine their impact on the footprint, an example, waste management, local food production, sustainable transport measures, renewable energy production…

 

It is also a most valuable and effective visualising tool for educators and can be used with everyone, children, young people and adults.  It has the ability to create simple mental images from complex statistics; it can be used to train decision makers to think about the bigger picture.

 

If all the biologically productive land and sea is divided by the number of people inhabiting it, our available fair Earthshare footprint is 1.8 global hectares per person[2]