Global Footprint Network
What We Do
www.footprintnetwork.org
THE PROBLEM
Today, humanity consumes more than the Earth can produce. Our economies operate as if ecological resources are limitless, without recognizing that our ever- increasing consumption is unsustainable and is undermining the Earth’s ability to provide for us in the future.
Our latest calculations estimate that humanity’s demand on nature, its Ecological Footprint, is 25 percent greater than the planet’s ability to meet this demand. It now takes the Earth one year and three months to regenerate what we use in a year. This global “ecological deficit” or “ecological overshoot” is depleting the natural capital on which both human life and biodiversity depend.
Collapsing fisheries, loss of forest cover, depletion of fresh water systems, accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and the build-up of wastes and pollutants are just a few noticeable consequences of unchecked human consumption. If these trends continue, ecosystems will collapse, leading to permanent reductions in the Earth’s ability to provide sufficient resources for humanity. While these trends affect us all, they have a disproportionate impact on the poor, who cannot buy themselves out of the problem by getting resources from elsewhere.
To move out of this situation, it is imperative that individuals and institutions around the world recognize ecological limits and find ways to live within the Earth’s bounds. By scientifically measuring the supply of, and demand for, ecological resources, the Ecological Footprint provides a resource accounting tool which reveals ecological limits, helps communicate the risk of unchecked resource consumption, and facilitates the sustainable management and preservation of the Earth’s resources.
OUR SOLUTION
We launched Global Footprint Network in 2003 with the mission of reversing the current overuse of the biosphere by making ecological limits central to decision- making everywhere.
Three years later, with 75 partner organizations around the world, Global Footprint Network serves as the steward of the Ecological Footprint, the world’s leading resource accounting tool. We annually publish National Footprint Accounts for 152 countries, which compare each nation’s demand for resources to the regenerative capacity of its own ecosystems and those of the world as a whole. Global Footprint Network also promotes scientific research to continually improve the Ecological Footprint methodology, extends and standardizes use of the tool internationally, and works to increase the recognition of planetary limits through the Network’s activities.
Global Footprint Network has secured the support of many prominent scientists and public policy experts who serve on its Advisory Council, including Nobel Peace Prize winners Oscar Arias (President of Costa Rica) and Wangari Maathai, Wuppertal Institute founder Ernst von Weizsäcker, science educator David Suzuki, as well as present and former government ministers from Wales, Indonesia, Britain and France.
OUR UNIQUE POSITION
Conceived in 1990 by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees at the University of British Columbia, the Ecological Footprint has emerged as the world’s premier measure of humanity’s demand on nature. The Ecological Footprint has reached all corners of the world. Its inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary illustrates the extent to which the concept has entered common discourse, and its appearance in more than 5,000 scholarly publications reflects the impact it is having within the scientific community.
The Ecological Footprint has become a key sustainability tool for hundreds of cities and local governments around the world. It informs policy, planning, and ecological asset management. For instance, the national government of Wales has adopted the Footprint as an indicator of sustainability. Last fall, the Swiss government published a favourable review of the Swiss National Footprint Accounts, and is exploring its use for the nation's Sustainable Development Plan.
The Japanese Ministry of the Environment recently started a review of Japan’s National Footprint Accounts, and has incorporated the Ecological Footprint into its national Environmental Plan. Germany, Finland, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the European Commission are also conducting reviews of the Footprint - a necessary step before they can adopt the Footprint as an official indicator. Belgium has invited the Network to submit a proposal to help it conduct a review of the Belgian National Footprint Accounts. Canada is considering how the Footprint might be used to help shape national policy, and the Cuban government has formed a workgroup to better understand the significance of their Footprint results.
Businesses are applying the Footprint as a management tool across a broad spectrum of activities, from electricity production and waste management to the development of real estate holdings. Large Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) such as the Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development, with 50 regional government participants; ICLEI, with over 475 member local governments; and WWF, which operates in more than 100 countries, are using the Footprint to frame their sustainability initiatives.
Recognizing that reducing human pressure on the biosphere is essential to halting the worldwide decline of biodiversity, the global Convention on Biological Diversity and the European Commission evaluated the Ecological Footprint as a tool to
measure pressure on the biosphere. In 2006, both groups adopted the Footprint as an official indicator of progress towards meeting their 2010 biodiversity targets.
This broad and growing use of the Ecological Footprint is both an indication that it is seen as the most comprehensive measure of the balance between human demands on the biosphere and the biosphere’s capacity to meet those demands, as well as an acknowledgment of the centrality of this issue in humanity’s quest for a sustainable future.
OUR GOALS
In 2005, we launched our “Ten-in-Ten” campaign with the specific goal of institutionalizing the Ecological Footprint in at least ten key national governments by 2015. Our aim is to have ecological accounting be given as much weight as economic accounting, and to have the Ecological Footprint become as prominent a metric as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Doing so will allow governments to systematically account for and manage their ecological assets; identify the risks associated with ecological deficits; and measure tangible progress toward sustainability. In short, our vision is to secure well-being for all by ending ecological overshoot.
In order to realize our vision, we are working to: • Bring the Ecological Footprint to new levels of scientific quality and precision; • Increase the comparability and standardization of Ecological Footprint applications; • Build capacity around the world, through our partners and clients, to meet the rising demand for Ecological Footprint accounting; • Establish the Ecological Footprint as a prominent, globally accepted metric as ubiquitous as the GDP; and, • Create a critical mass of powerful institutions using the Ecological Footprint.
Our intent is that together these efforts will redirect billions of dollars of investment flows and public monies toward making global sustainability a reality. In this way, the work we do supports our ultimate goal of creating a sustainable human society where everyone lives well, within the means of one planet.
OUR PROGRAMS
Institutionalizing the Ecological Footprint at the national level requires acceptance by statistical offices, policy advisors, academia and businesses of both the data and the methodology underlying the Footprint. It also requires promoting an understanding of the Footprint throughout society in order to build the political will required to end overshoot.
To accomplish our overarching mission, and to influence decision makers at national, state, and local levels, we are working with our 75 partner organizations around the world. We actively work in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Africa to build a common language and approach that will resonate in all countries and cultures. Together with our partner organizations, we carry out four key programs:
1. National Footprint Accounts Research Global Footprint Network serves as the steward of the National Footprint Accounts, the calculation system that measures the ecological resource use and resource capacity of nations over time. Based on approximately 4,000 data points per country per year, the Accounts calculate the Footprints of 152 countries from 1961 to the present. These accounts provide the core data that is needed for all Footprint analyses worldwide.
2. International Standards The adoption of the Ecological Footprint as a trusted sustainability metric depends on the scientific integrity of the methodology, consistent and rigorous application of this methodology across analyses, and results being reported in a straightforward and non-misleading manner. To meet these goals, we have created a consensus-based committee process to establish standards governing all Ecological Footprint analyses worldwide. In June 2006, we launched the first Ecological Footprint standards. (www.footprintstandards.org)
3. Network Building and Outreach We are building a network of the world’s leading practitioners and institutions working to expand awareness and use of the Ecological Footprint. The network currently includes 75 partner organizations on five continents. Through our newsletter, website, trainings, and media campaigns we are sparking a global dialogue about ecological limits and overshoot.
4. Strategic Applications In order to extend the Footprint into new domains and to develop new application methodologies and tools, Global Footprint Network engages in a select number of strategic projects with government agencies, nonprofits, and businesses. Many of these projects are conducted in collaboration with our partners.
GLOBAL AND NATIONAL OUTREACH
To help establish the Ecological Footprint as a prominent, globally accepted metric, we work with a range of multi-national agencies, including the European Commission, the European Environment Agency, UNEP, and UNESCO. We also work with global Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) like WWF International, with whom we produce global and regional Living Planet Reports.
These programs are also advancing our “Ten-in-Ten” campaign. This aims at institutionalizing the Footprint in ten national governments by 2015. Global Footprint Network is now in active dialogue with contacts in over 20 countries that are likely to be early adopters of the Ecological Footprint. We are already working with partner organizations and government agencies in Switzerland, Japan, Belgium, Finland and a number of other countries to initiate reviews of their National Footprint Accounts. These reviews will enable the national governments to assess the scientific validity of the accounts as a prelude to institutionalizing the Ecological Footprint as a national metric. It will also enable them to work with us to improve the Footprint accounts.
To gain the greatest leverage, we target decision makers within large institutions that have significant influence over the allocation of financial resources and the direction of human endeavour. We therefore focus on local, state, and national governments; multi-national agencies; and businesses. With the Ecological Footprint, large institutions can measure their overall demand on the biosphere, assess their sustainability performance, set realistic targets, monitor projects and programs, communicate successes and, by comparing scenarios, identify ecological implications of the choices they make. The Footprint also helps these institutions shape policy and budget priorities that will encourage large Footprint reductions among those they influence. By providing these actors with a common framework and metric that works across geographic scales, the Ecological Footprint enables comparison, communication, and concerted action – all in service of sustainability.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Oakland, California Office (Headquarters):
Mathis Wackernagel, Ph.D., Executive Director
+ [1] 510-839-8879 (tel) + [1] 510-251-2410 (fax) [email protected]
Mailing address: Physical office address:
Global Footprint Network Global Footprint Network 1050 Warfield Avenue 384 Embarcadero West, 2nd floor Oakland, CA 94610-1612 USA Oakland, CA 94607 USA
Zurich, Switzerland Office:
Martin Kärcher, dipl. Arch. ETH, Swiss Office Coordinator
+ [41] 44 305 94 35 (tel) + [41] 44 305 92 14 (fax) [email protected]
Global Footprint Network Novatlantis c/o Amstein & Walthert Andreasstrasse 11 CH-8050 Zürich SWITZERLAND
www.footprintnetwork.org
Global Footprint Network March 2007
Global Footprint Network supports a sustainable economy by advancing the Ecological Footprint, a measurement and management tool that makes the reality of ecological limits central to decision-making everywhere.
www.footprintnetwork.org