Understanding Your Ecological Footprint

As such, I used this calculator in my research to measure tiny home downsizers' ecological footprints.

If you are interested in learning more about your ecological footprint, the key is to choose a calculator that fits your needs and goals. The two phases I used to compare the top seven calculators were somewhat tedious but easy to replicate. At a minimum, it is essential to review the content of multiple calculators before deciding which is the best for you. There are so many great tools out there, and understanding which is the best for your needs will help you better understand your environmental impact. 

The following section will explore the five main components of the Global Footprint Network ecological footprint calculator. You'll also learn how you use this tool to understand your environmental impact as well as the limitations of ecological footprint calculators in general.

Serious Data

The personal ecological footprint calculator is based on National Footprint Accounts (NFA) data for selected countries. The NFA program provides a framework for calculating a footprint and annually measures the ecological footprints of countries worldwide from 1961 to the present day. The purpose of the NFA is to provide a comprehensive and transparent calculation methodology, and these editions are available online as downloadable files provided by the Global Footprint Network. These are worth a look if you are interested in learning more about the NFA program.

A specific country's ecological footprint relies on regional data on resource consumption—such as energy, water, land use, logging, fishing, etc. In short, the calculation adds imports and subtracts exports from the country's overall production. The NFA uses about 15,000 data points per country per year and includes more than 200 countries, territories, and regions. For each country per year, over 5,400 raw data points are used. In the 2011 edition of the NFA, approximately 61 million data points were used in total. The data sources for the NFA include United Nations data sets, including the Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database, UN Statistics Division, and the International Energy Agency. Additional data includes peer-reviewed science journal articles and thematic collections. The NFA is used and supported by more than 70 organizations, making it the most widely used national accounting methodology.

A Closer Look at the Global Footprint Calculator Methodology 

An ecological footprint represents the land area necessary to sustain current levels of resource consumption and waste by a population, activity, or individual. An ecological footprint calculator measures the amount of biologically productive land and sea area an individual, group of individuals, or activity needs to provide for their consumption.

To calculate the area required, ecological footprint calculators use yields of land types, including cropland, forest, grazing land, fishing ground, and built-up land. The measurement unit is in global hectares (gha). A global hectare equates to 10,000 square meters or 2.471 acres and is approximately the soccer field size. Global hectares (gha) are used as a unit of measure because they look at the physical area across various land-use types. 

The calculation methods of the Global Footprint Network calculator are standardized and use a standard set of easily accessible data, ensuring their credibility and consistency. All steps of an ecological footprint calculation—including raw data—are found in the "Working Guidebook to the National Footprint Accounts." Further, the methodology of the Global Footprint Network ecological footprint calculator is regularly reviewed and improved by two review committees (the Standards Committee and the National Accounts Committee), partners of the Global Footprint Network, and other stakeholders, including other national governments.

How to Use the Global Footprint Calculator

You can find the Global Footprint Network's online ecological footprint calculator tool on their homepage by clicking "Calculate Your Footprint." Once you get to the calculator itself, it will first prompt you to log in with Facebook or provide your email. But don't worry, they won't bombard you with emails. Then, the calculator will have you answer a series of questions divided into three main categories: food, housing, and transportation. The number of questions you answer will depend on how much data you want to provide. 

The national per-person ecological footprint is allocated to five ecological footprint components: food, housing, transportation, goods, and services. The online calculator asks questions that either increase or decrease different parts of one's ecological footprint relative to national averages. For example, if you indicate that you eat twice as much beef as the average American, your "beef" footprint will double. Your overall ecological footprint value will increase. If you indicate you eat very little beef, you will receive a fraction of the average beef value, resulting in a smaller overall ecological footprint.

What Does It All Mean?

In this final section, we will help you understand what your ecological footprint results mean, how they compare to national (and international) averages, and some limitations of this tool.

This date is calculated using data from the Global Footprint Network's National Footprint Accounts (NFA). The simplified calculation is as follows: 

The general trend has been that the world's Earth Overshoot Day is earlier and earlier each year. In 2019, it was July 29th, the earliest ever. There is an initiative to #movethedate back five days every year—which is part of what we'll discuss in the next article. 

By clicking on the green label "See Details," you'll come to a page that looks similar to the one below but with different values. This page will show your overall ecological footprint value, carbon footprint value, and a visual breakdown of your footprint.

Your ecological footprint value is measured in global hectares (gha). A global hectare equates to 10,000 square meters (or 2.471 acres) and is approximately the size of a soccer field. Global hectares (gha) are used as a measurement unit to look at the physical area across various land-use types. My ecological footprint is 2.9 global hectares. This result tells us that my lifestyle requires about three soccer fields worth of biologically-productive land to provide enough resources. 

As mentioned earlier in this series, a carbon footprint is another popular measurement of environmental impact. As seen above, a carbon footprint is a small component of someone's overall ecological footprint. A carbon footprint is measured in tonnes per year. It is impacted by things like transportation habits and the consumption of animal-based products. My carbon footprint comprised 50% of my overall ecological footprint, meaning that this is an element I need to work to reduce. 

The national per person ecological footprint includes five footprint components: food, housing, transportation, goods, and services. It also covers land types (forest, cropland, energy, fish, grazing land) using a country's average consumption profile. The pie chart displayed in your results will be dependent on your answers to the calculator questions. For instance, I shared that I very infrequently consume fish food products. The calculator's results reflect the lack of fishing grounds required for my lifestyle. 

To improve the comprehensiveness of the ecological footprint calculator, starting in 2019, the Global Footprint Network launched the "The Ecological Footprint Initiative." This is a partnership between the Global Footprint Network and York University in Toronto, Canada. This initiative's goal is for researchers to further develop the methodology and improve the data behind the current ecological footprint calculator. Likely, this will improve the existing limitations of the ecological footprint calculator to make it representative of the range of potential impact-producing behaviors and choices made by individuals.