The Ecological Footprint of a person is calculated by adding up all of people’s demands that compete for biologically productive space, such as cropland to grow potatoes or cotton, or forest to produce timber or to sequester carbon dioxide emissions. How is an Ecological Footprint calculated?Įcological Footprints can be calculated for individual people, groups of people (such as a nation), and activities (such as manufacturing a product). By definition, overshoot leads to a depletion of the planet’s life supporting biological capital and/or to an accumulation of carbon dioxide emissions. The Ecological Footprint is often used to calculate global ecological overshoot, which occurs when humanity’s demand on the biosphere exceeds the available biological capacity of the planet. Overshoot, which in this context is shorthand for ecological overshoot, occurs when a population’s demand on an ecosystem exceeds the capacity of that ecosystem to regenerate the resources it consumes and to absorb its carbon dioxide emissions.
What is biocapacity?īiocapacity is shorthand for biological capacity, which is the ability of an ecosystem to produce useful biological materials and to absorb carbon dioxide emissions. Approximately 90 percent of all leading Ecological Footprint practitioners worldwide have joined Global Footprint Network and have agreed to adhere to these standards and to use a common set of data.įor globally comparable and credible Ecological Footprint calculator results, look for transparent information on the methodology used, and check to see if the calculator was created by a Global Footprint Network partner, as partnership requires compliance with Ecological Footprint standards. The Ecological Footprint as defined by the Ecological Footprint standards calculates how much biologically productive area is required to produce the resources required by the human population and to absorb humanity’s carbon dioxide emissions. These calculators may offer interesting insights but they are not aligned with the international Ecological Footprint Standards, which were adopted in 2006 in order to ensure that Footprint studies were both credible and consistent. When evaluating other Ecological Footprint calculators, the most important consideration is whether the calculator is actually measuring the Ecological Footprint and not just using the term footprint as a proxy for general environmental impact. There are a number of online Ecological Footprint calculators in use today. The Footprint then can be compared to how much land and sea area is available.īiologically productive land and sea includes cropland, forest and fishing grounds, and do not include deserts, glaciers and the open ocean.Ĭurrent Ecological Footprint Accounts use global hectares as a measurement unit, which makes data and results globally comparable. Calculation methods are standardized so results of various assessments can be compared. The Ecological Footprint measures the amount of biologically productive land and sea area an individual, a region, all of humanity, or a human activity that compete for biologically productive space. This includes producing renewable resources, accommodating urban infrastructure and roads, and breaking down or absorbing waste products, particularly carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel. The Ecological Footprint is a resource accounting tool used by governments, businesses, educational institutions and NGOs to answer to a specific resource question: How much of the biological capacity of the planet is required by a given human activity or population? What does the Ecological Footprint measure?