Environmental Footprinting

Question 1

What is the definition of an ecological footprint?

Answer 1

A measure of the demand populations and activities place on the biosphere in a given year, given the prevailing technology and resource management of that year

Question 2

What is the definition of biocapacity?

Answer 2

A measure of the amount of biologically productive land and sea area available to provide the ecosystem services that humanity consumes - our ecological budget or nature’s regenerative capacity

Question 3

How many earth’s do we need to regenerate what we use in a year?

Answer 3

1.7 :(

higher in more developed countries (i.e., Canada)

Question 4

What is the limitation of the ecological footprint?

Answer 4

measures one main aspect of sustainability only - how much biocapacity humans demand, and how much is available - not all aspects of sustainability, nor environmental concerns

Question 5

What is the definition of a footprint?

Answer 5

Metric(s) used to report life cycle assessment results addressing an area of concern

Question 6

What is the definition of LCA?

Answer 6

Compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs, and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle

Comprehensive set of environmental footprints

Question 7

What are the areas of concern?

Answer 7

Carbon footprint (i.e., climate change)
Water scarcity footprint (i.e., water use) 
Land footprint (i.e., land use)

Question 8

What are the areas of protection?

Answer 8

Endpoints: human health, ecosystem quality, resources

Question 9

What is ISO?

Answer 9

ISO: International Organization for Standardization

independent, non-governmental international organization that provides requirements, specifications, guidelines, or characteristics that can be used consistently to ensure that materials, products, processes and services are fit for their purpose

standards developed through a consensus process