Ecological And Social Footprint

Question 1

Carbon footprint

Answer 1

• carbon is produced during manufacture of products
• the amount of co2 emitted during a process is called carbon footprint
• calculating carbon footprint is a way of estimating greenhouse gas emissions caused by a process / product etc
• there are 6 greenhouse gases which are damaging to the atmosphere in different ways

Question 2

Ecological and social footprint

Answer 2

• measures the impact of a persons life on the natural environment by quantifying the amount of the earths natural resources they use
• measured by amount of co2 that is released into the atmosphere in order to sustain their lifestyle
• ecological footprint may also be measured in terms of area of land and sea needed to supply a persons needs and dispose of their waste.
• it can be calculated for an activity, individual, city, country or entire globe and can be used as a measure of environment sustainability.

Question 3

Social footprint

Answer 3

• a social footprint is a measure of the impact that a company’s social policies have on its employees, partners / society as a whole etc
• companies have an obligation to protect the environment by reducing their ecological footprint wherever possible, but also to consider their effect that company policies have on all those affected

Question 4

Safe working conditions

Answer 4

(Self explanatory)

Question 5

What does / what is
HSE
(Stand for)

Answer 5

Health and safety executive

Organisation which looks after the welfare of employees and enforces the health and safety at work act

Under legally binding protection for visitors if appropriate

Question 6

Fair trade

Answer 6

An organisation that promotes choosing to purchase goods from companies that offer decent working conditions and wages to their employees even if it is slightly more expensive.

It specialises in:
Farming
Clothing 
Food production 
Gold mining

Their philosophy is to give workers and farmers a fair price for their services and products and to facilitate sustainable trade with other countries

Question 7

Slash and burn term definition

Answer 7

A technique of converting virgin forest into farmland.
The trees are felled and set alight
Resulting ash gives soil nutrients for short period of time and crops and grown or cattle grazed

Once forest is gone - does not grow back