Ecological Footprint

One’s ecological footprint is directly related to carrying capacity. The carrying capacity for an ecosystem is the population, or number of a species, that the area can support with out having detrimental effects. The ecological footprint of a person is the physical area required to support themselves with regards to energy production, food production, and other goods and services. If a group or population has a fairly large ecological footprint their carrying capacity for the area they occupy would be much smaller than a population with a small ecological footprint. The best way for a population to increase its area’s carrying capacity is to lower its ecological footprint.

The calculators used:

Global Footprint Network Calculator: Personal Footprint

National Geographic Greendex Calculator

look at food consumed, specifically beef, poultry, and fish, distance the food travels, textiles consumed, paper products consumed, electricity consumed, methods of travel, and type of living space. All of these are successful proxies of one’s ecological footprint. The two differ in that the Greendex calculator also attempts to see what your mindset in the future will be by asking if you plan on doing certain things in the foreseeable future, such as buying energy saving appliances, or luxury automobiles, or large houses. Also both calculators attempt to address recycling the greendex by asking if you repair things or simply throw them away, and the Personal Footprint calculator asking if you recycle and what.



Some things that I see that are left out would be specific questions about recycling such as; do you recycle curbside or at a recycling center, do you compost waste, and what percent of your monthly waste is disposed of as “trash” as opposed to recycled or dealt with in another manner. Also there were many questions about transportation but not a direct one such as do you carpool. It was asked if you have a passenger, and how often, but not the amount of passengers or distance for carpooling. One other question that could have been asked would have been are you active in the community, and what types of activity, this would not directly be related to ecological footprint, but would be related to sustainability.

After calculating my footprint I have to say I am very disappointed in the number I saw from the Personal Footprint calculator. I think my actions that have the most impact on my large number deal with my travel and electricity usage. My family lives in Arizona, so I have to make that 6 hour flight a few times a year. Alternatively I could use a train, but the time it would take out of my small vacations would be too much. If only there were a highspeed rail system in this country. Additionally my car travels are significantly high because my girlfriend recently moved to Indianapolis and I drive there once or twice a week. One thing that I can change with my driving habits is to use the bus more when doing in town driving. I often ride the bus to class when not hurting for time, but I could ride it more if I woke up earlier, and I could ride it to downtown instead of driving. Alternatively I could use a bicycle until the winter months come. As for my electricity, my footprint will go down drastically once my air conditioning is no longer needed, but I could make a more concerted effort to not leave my laptop plugged in, and better insulate my apartment. All together, I feel I could reduce my impact significantly in the future, but as a student, living on a small income, far away from my family, I can only do so much at the moment. Hopefully in the future I will not have that excuse.