? of the Day: What is your ecological footprint on Earth?

Submitted by Norm Roulet on May 17, 2006 - 7:44am.

I was shocked yesterday when I asked my 70-something mom if she was planning to replace her aging car anytime soon, and she said she'd like to get a hybrid. She is also interested to move from a large house in Shaker to a smaller condo in University Circle, so she can live near what she values most in the community. She wants to minimize her ecological footprint on Earth, while she is still here to help. While mom is a progressive, she has not previously been nearly so concerned about her individual impact on the environment. This is progress!

We need better environmentalist role models in the community, including 70-something grandmothers. And we must make examples of high-profile ecological offenders, from individual GEM employees, managers, executives and shareholders who just contaminated the region, to the Hummer driver with the "ENVYME" license plate who is so offensive to all man-woman-and-childkind. The media and ecological frontlines are great places to begin - community leaders should investigate their negative impact on our environment, champion social responsibility, change behavior when appropriate, and step forward as positive role models, if they may.

There is an easy way for folks to benchmark social responsibility, by measuring your ecological footprint on Earth... go to http://myfootprint.org/ and complete a two minute, 15 question quiz (share your results as comments here). The results tell you how many of the Earth's biologically productive acres of land are required to support your consumption of resources, and how many planet Earths would be required to sustain the world if everyone lived like you. Read on...

To put the outcomes in perspective, at the Futures Forum in 2004, EcoCity director David Beach confided we need 26 acres to sustain his lifestyle (and he considers himself
a good ecological citizen), and if everyone on earth lived the way he does we'd need 6 planets for all the Earth's citizens.... see comlete write up here. Go to http://myfootprint.org/ and take the survey and let us know your results as a comment here... for now, let's just gather some perspectives... ASAP, I'd like to formalize this into a very public NEO community stakeholder social responsibility benchmarking initiative. I'll post my footprint, will you?

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Norm Roulet's ecological footprint

Submitted by Norm Roulet on May 17, 2006 - 8:01am.

Survey completed at http://myfootprint.org/ on May 17, 2006, showing room for improvement. I'll be working on that:

CATEGORY ACRES
FOOD 2.7
MOBILITY 0.7
SHELTER 2.5
GOODS/SERVICES 2.2
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 8

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 1.8 PLANETS.

Phillip Williams :: ecological footprint

Submitted by Phillip Williams on May 17, 2006 - 10:36am.

Survey completed at http://myfootprint.org/ on May 17, 2006, showing room for improvement. I'll be working on that:

CATEGORY ACRES
FOOD 3.2
MOBILITY 1
SHELTER 2.2
GOODS/SERVICES 2.2
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 9

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.
IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 1.9 PLANETS.

Ed Hauser's Ecological Footprint

Submitted by Ed Hauser on May 17, 2006 - 4:35pm.

There is much room for improvement and I'm gonna start my diet and riding my bike- soon!


CATEGORY ACRES
FOOD 4.9
MOBILITY 1.5
SHELTER 7.7
GOODS/SERVICES 6.2
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 20

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.
IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 4.6 PLANETS.

HUMBER'S RIDER'S TIRE PRINT

Submitted by Jeff Buster on May 17, 2006 - 5:19pm.

CATEGORY ACRES
FOOD 2.5
MOBILITY 1
SHELTER 6.7
GOODS/SERVICES 5.2
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 15

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.
IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 3.4 PLANETS.

Evelyn's ecological footprint:

Submitted by Evelyn Kiefer on May 17, 2006 - 9:27pm.
CATEGORY ACRES
FOOD 4.2
MOBILITY 0.5
SHELTER 2.5
GOODS/SERVICES 2
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 9

Charles Burkett's

Submitted by Charles on May 17, 2006 - 9:36pm.

Charles Burkett's footprint:

 

CATEGORY ACRES
FOOD 5.9
MOBILITY 2
SHELTER 11.9
GOODS/SERVICES 12.6
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 32
IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.
IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 7.3 PLANETS. 

Footprint Quiz

Submitted by Sudhir Kade on May 20, 2006 - 6:45pm.
 
CATEGORY ACRES
FOOD 2.5
MOBILITY 1
SHELTER 2.7
GOODS/SERVICES 2.5
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 9

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.
IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 1.9 PLANETS.

Susan's eco footprint

Submitted by Susan Miller on May 21, 2006 - 10:01am.

CATEGORY

ACRES

FOOD

3

MOBILITY

0.7

SHELTER

4.2

GOODS/SERVICES

3.5

TOTAL FOOTPRINT

11

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.


IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 2.6 PLANETS.

An interesting article on this subject here:

http://afr.com/cgi-bin/newtextversions.pl?pagetype=printer&path=/articles/2005/01/20/1106110869328.html

It is "Green Manhattan" by David Owen
Set aside some time for this extensive article -- it's worth it. It is reprinted from the New Yorker. It makes a strong case for us lightening up on Flats East Bank even though it is not the "way" we want development to happen in our urban core. Still having green buildings in a location that is the antithesis of sprawl land is good.
Read about what the project "will" entail here http://www.gcbl.org/planning/flats-east/green-neighborhood-design
We already know it will not be adaptive reuse of historic buildings, but one has to consider, where were we when the buildings might have been in a condition that might have prompted an innovative adaptive reuse scheme? I was penniless and preoccupied with other things. We can't save everything.

Did this help you change your behavior?

Submitted by Norm Roulet on March 4, 2008 - 4:05am.

It's been almost 2 years and nearly 2500 reads since I posted this... have you changed your behavior since May 2006 regarding your ecological footprint and saving the environment?

Disrupt IT

MakeMeSustainable

Submitted by jeffschuler on March 4, 2008 - 1:29pm.

(A new way to) Track your energy consumption and environmental impact with MakeMeSustainable.