Calculating your own ecological footprint is not just generating a number. It is generating an understanding of

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Question:

Calculating your own ecological footprint is not just generating a number. It is generating an understanding of why you require so many resources (ecological services) and trying to determine how to reduce your resource need/consumption. It really is a tool for planning towards sustainability. For this assessment, you will analyze one of the scenarios below using this ecological footprint calculator (http://ecologicalfootprint.com/) and report on your findings. Then you will calculate your own personal footprint (using a different calculator) and identify three (3) things you can do to reduce your Ecological Footprint.

Analyze a Scenario First, read through all the scenarios. Which do you think will have the highest footprint? Which do you think will have the lowest?

A - Louise is a student who lives in Ottawa with 3 other friends in a small house. She lives close to both work and school and generally walks or cycles everywhere. She eats a mixture of fresh and pre-packaged (convenience) foods. She eats meat occasionally. She and her roommates don't have much control over the energy bills and they don't try to conserve energy. Their bills are average and the energy comes from a non-renewable source. They produce an average amount of waste and always recycle. Her holidays are spent at home with her family an hour away in Perth, Ontario.

B - John lives with his partner in an old house in downtown Montreal. It's a beautiful historic building with high ceilings and old windows. As a result, his heating and cooling bills are very high but he doesn't mind because the place worth it! They are not particularly concerned with conserving energy and they get their energy from a non-renewable source. They produce an average amount of waste but usually forget to recycle. John tries to walk when he can but has to use his car to commute every day. His commute is about an hour each way. He and his partner eat meat occasionally and they try to get most of their fresh food from local farms when it's in season. Every year they go on an adventure holiday abroad and this year they are planning to go to India.

C - Harry lives with his family (partner and 2 children) in a big house in the suburbs of Vancouver and as a result, their heating and cooling bills are quite high. The family is very busy and they are always taking their family van to get from one activity to the next. The children have been learning about environmental issues at school and have encouraged the family to reduce their waste and always recycle. They also buy their electricity from renewable sources and are learning how to conserve energy. They have a hectic schedule and as a result, they eat a lot of prepackaged (convenience) foods and they eat meat regularly. They love to fly and spend their holidays exploring different parts of Canada and the US.

D - Julia lives with her parents and two brothers in the country near Picton, Ontario. They grow a lot of their own food and buy the rest from local farmers when they can. As a family, they love to cook good, fresh food with meat at most meals. They live in a large farmhouse and it is hard to keep their energy costs down. Their bills are high but their electricity comes from renewable sources. Brianne works about an hour away and drives back and forth at least five times a week, often six. They don't have regular recycling pick-up at home and they produce a lot of garbage between the five of them. They go on holiday once a year to visit family in France.

Now that you have read through the scenarios, choose one scenario to analyze and answer the following questions.

1. Which footprint are you going to analyze? Apply the information in the above scenario to the footprint calculator and determine their ecological footprint. Also, note how many planets we would need if everyone lived with his or her consumption patterns.

2. What does he/she do to lower their ecological footprint?

3. What does he/she do (intentionally or not) to make their ecological footprint bigger?

4. How do you think they can improve their ecological footprint? (Use both facts and opinions in this section). Remember to use this Footprint calculator (http://ecologicalfootprint.com/).