What is the Ecological Footprint Useful for?

The ecological footprint It is useful because it is a tool that allows us to measure who or what is environmentally sustainable and establish what responsibility an entity has in climate change, from a person to a country, through companies or non-profit organizations.

The ecological footprint is an indicator defined as the total ecologically productive area necessary to produce the resources consumed by an average citizen of a given human community, as well as that necessary to absorb the waste it generates, regardless of the location of these areas..

This indicator was designed by several scientists during the 1980s to answer the following question: How much biological capacity of the Planet does a population or a certain activity demand??

In other words, how much biologically productive land and ocean is needed to support human demand for food, fiber, wood, energy, and space for infrastructure??

To answer this question, it occurred to scientists to represent in a simple and graphical way the consumption of resources by calculating the productive land area necessary to obtain the resources and absorb the waste generated..

The smaller the ecological footprint, the lower the negative environmental impact and the more ecologically sustainable is the consumption or production of an entity..

Current situation of the ecological footprint in the world

According to the conclusions agreed by the scientific community on the Ecological Footprint, the current human consumption of agricultural products, wood fiber and fossil fuels […] exceeds the availability of ecologically productive soils […] by 30%.

This means that at the rate of consumption that we carry today, a planet Earth that is 30% larger or 30% more ecologically productive is needed to be able to sustain our demand for natural resources without destroying the ecosystems necessary for it..

Without denying the fact that the global ecological footprint is very noticeable and the demand for natural resources is increasing rapidly, this indicator is not homogeneous throughout the planet..

Faced with this problem of ecological unsustainability, developed countries carry a higher level of responsibility compared to those that are developing it..

To put the above into perspective, according to the United Nations (UN), 20% of the world's population living in rich countries consumes up to 80% of the world's resources and produces almost the same percentage of waste..

Continuing the analogy between the disparity in the ecological footprint between developed and developing countries, an average American (with the current consumption style) needs 9.57 hectares of productive land to satisfy his needs while the average person in Bangladesh is 0.6 hectares.

If the area of ​​productive land for each of the 6.5 billion inhabitants is 1.8 hectares on average, then 3.5 planets would be needed to cover the ecological footprint of the American while there would still be half of the planet to cover the demand from Bangladesh.

According to the area of ​​productive land available on our planet, each of us has an area of ​​1.8 hectares but the global average ecological footprint is 2.2.

Ecological footprint, biocapacity and ecological deficit

Previously, it was thought that many resources were inexhaustible and that their intensive use had no impact on the Earth's ecosystems.

However, since 1980, scientists have warned world politicians that the current model of economic development that makes intensive use of all available natural resources is not only generating imbalances in ecosystems but is also contributing to global warming and that resources are limited and / or require some time to replenish.

The ecological footprint recognizes that human beings have responsibility for the pollution of the planet and for the constant and progressive depletion of natural resources. For this reason, it measures the environmental impact of man on the planet's resources..

Biocapacity

For its part, biocapacity refers to the capacity of a specific biologically productive area to generate a regular supply of renewable resources and to absorb the waste resulting from its consumption..

When the exploitation and use of natural resources is greater than the capacity of an area to generate available resources, an imbalance is produced called ecological deficit..

If the ecological footprint of a region is greater than its biocapacity, it means that its use is ecologically unsustainable.

To illustrate the above, let's imagine fishing in a certain area. This activity intensively extracts fish, uses boats that cause CO2 emissions into the atmosphere and also requires an infrastructure to store, process, pack and then market them..

Sustained attrition in the marine ecosystem for a time will cause the number of fish to decrease considerably, few individuals of the species reproducing, shortage of food for other marine animals that prey on them, etc..

In the end there will be an ecological deficit because the sea is not given enough time to restore all the fish extracted.

Usefulness of the ecological footprint

The ecological footprint is useful for the following reasons:

• It works as a biophysical indicator of sustainability: it measures the impact of a human community on its environment.
• It indicates the degree of international sustainability of an economy and together with GDP, it evaluates the rate of growth and the ecological viability of its economy.
• It is an administration and communication tool that allows raising awareness about the imperative of sustainability in the extraction, processing, use and management of waste from all resources used at the individual, corporate (profit or non-profit), business, government and state.
• It widens the corporate perspective that the only responsibility of companies is not only to generate profits but that their value chain must seek to be the most socially and ecologically sustainable.
• The analysis of the Ecological Footprint provides a framework to visualize and communicate the phenomenon of <> (Wackernagel & Rees, 2001, p. 116) and waste.
• Helps to develop appropriate public policies at different levels (from local to international) that respond to the global ecological challenge with local consumption in political, economic, social and technological contexts.
• Provides specific guidance on the destination of any Corporate Social Responsibility program of any company in the environmental field.

References

1. Carballo Penela, A. (15 of 7 of 2017). Usefulness of the ecological and carbon footprint in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the eco-labeling of goods and services. Retrieved from Research Gate: researchgate.net
2. Dómenech Quesada, J. L. (15 of 7 of 2017). Ecological footprint and sustainable development. Obtained from Squarespace: static1.squarespace.com
3. Earth Day Network's. (13 of 7 of 2017). Ecological Footprint Quiz. Retrieved from Earth Day Network's: earthday.org
4. Facua Andalusia. (13 of 7 of 2017). The Ecological Footprint, responsible consumption habits. Obtained from Facua: facua.org
5. Green Facts. (15 of 7 of 2017). Biocapacity. Obtained from Green Facts. Facts on Health and the Environment: greenfacts.org
6. Rees, W. E. (15 of 7 of 2017). Ecological footprint and appropriated carrying capacity: what urban economic leaves out. Retrieved from SAGE Jorunals: journals.sagepub.com
7. Wackernagel, M., & Rees, W. (2001). 4. How to avoid overextension: A summary. In M. Wackernagel, & W. Rees, Our ecological footprint: Reducing the human impact on the Earth (pp. 115-125). Santiago de Chile: LOM.