The How: Footprints
The term "footprint" refers to a physical measurement of land and offers a broader environmental impact measure than other metrics measuring perceptions. The three most common footprint metrics include carbon footprint, water footprint, and ecological footprint. Generally speaking, an ecological footprint is considered the most comprehensive of the three.
What is Carbon Footprint?
A carbon footprint refers to the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from an individual, process, or product. These are gases that trap heat in the atmosphere are the primary drivers of climate change. Carbon dioxide (CO2) comprises 82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. But greenhouse gases also include methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases. So to simplify the equation, other greenhouse gases are converted into "carbon equivalents"—hence the term "carbon" footprint. It considers an individual's carbon emissions from home energy usage, food choices, transportation, and waste. Calculating a carbon footprint is the initial step towards calculating a "full carbon footprint," which is one component of an ecological footprint. Therefore, a carbon footprint is not as comprehensive as an ecological footprint since it is one component considered in calculating an overall ecological footprint.
What is Water Footprint?
Unlike a carbon footprint, a water footprint is considered a complementary sustainability metric to an ecological footprint. A water footprint measures the freshwater that an individual or population directly (and indirectly) uses based on their consumption habits. In conjunction with an ecological footprint, a water footprint helps us understand our total demand on the Earth and the pressures we exert on it.
What is Ecological Footprint?
An ecological footprint calculator is one of the most holistic metrics available, as it compares all human demands on nature, including food, housing, transportation, goods, and services. Other types of sustainability metrics exist, but the ecological footprint is the overarching metric to calculate the effect of human behaviors on our planet's ecosystem. It includes components of other popular sustainability metrics, enabling it to examine human demand on Earth broadly. For this reason, the ecological footprint calculator has emerged as the world's standard for the measurement of human demand on land and water areas.
Ecological footprints are a measure of the load imposed by a given population on nature. It represents the land area necessary to sustain current resource consumption and waste levels by a community, activity, or individual. The purpose of calculating an ecological footprint is to determine if consumption is environmentally responsible. It is also used to determine the amount of biologically productive area required by an individual, population, or activity to accommodate their consumption.
An ecological footprint calculator measures the amount of biologically productive land and sea area an individual, group of individuals, or activity needs to provide for their consumption. Many ecological calculators can be found online and thus are accessible by many. However, not all online calculators comply with rigorous standards set for ecological footprints. The following article in this series will explore a comparison between seven of the most popular ecological footprint calculators.
For reference, the ecological footprint of an average American is 8.4 global hectares (gha), the sixth-largest average in the world. To help reduce an individual's ecological footprint only to require one planet or less, we look toward the built environment. We homeowners can demand more efficient design, and we can change our behaviors. This underscores the importance of encouraging the residential sector to adopt innovative solutions and approaches to addressing housing size and occupant behavior.
Now, more than ever, we are in a position where it is imperative to reduce our environmental impacts and find innovative solutions within the residential sector. Rise readers have already taken steps to learn about sustainable homes. Stay tuned to learn more about how to measure your ecological footprint and how you might be able to use this information to make informed, effective changes in your journey.