What's your ecological footprint?

As we are talking about green innovations and different ways to protect the environment, I asked myself: ‘how eco-friendly is my own lifestyle?’.  So I’ve calculated my ecological footprint. An ecological footprint measures the total amount of resources and land we use to produce the goods and products necessary to support a certain lifestyle. Let’s see the results of the test!

The result was shocking. I’m living as if we had 4 planets to support us!  More specific I have an ecological footprint of 7.4 global hectares. If all people have equal access to the natural resources and if we aren’t using more than what the earth produces every year, every individual could have an ecological footprint of 1.8 hectares. This is the bio capacity per capita which the earth can manage currently. But the current global ecological footprint is 23 percent larger than what the Earth is able to renew. It takes more than 14 months for Earth to regenerate what humans use in a single year. The current average ecological footprint is 2.3 hectares. This means that it would take 1.5 Earths to support this level of consumption. And surprise, surprise J : Americans have one of the largest ecological footprints per person (9.6 hectares or 5 planets). But the average ecological footprint of Belgians isn’t any better: we have an average footprint of 8 hectares!

Even if my result was that shocking, there’s still hope for me (and for all of us, Belgians) because there are different ways to reduce our ecological footprint without implying that we have to change dramatically the way we’re living.  For example, you can gain 180 m² by refusing publicity in your letter box, by using green energy you gain 3500 m², by changing meat two times a week in a vegetarian dish you save up to 1600 m², by taking a shower instead of a bath you gain another 180 m², … . This list is endless but as the cliché says: every little bit counts and together we can make a difference.

I dare you to take the test and see how much space you need for having your daily comfort: http://calculators.ecolife.be/nl/calculator/bereken-je-ecologische-voetafdruk

Liesbeth Rubben