Carbon and Environmental Footprinting

What is it about?

Environmental or ‘ecological’ footprints have been widely used in recent years as indicators of resource consumption and waste absorption transformed on the basis of biologically productive land area [in global hectares (gha)] required per capita with prevailing technology. They represent a partial measure of the extent to which an activity is ‘sustainable’. In contrast, ‘carbon footprints’ are the amount of carbon [or carbon dioxide equivalent] emissions associated with such activities in units of mass or weight (like kilograms per functional unit), but can be translated into a component of the environmental footprint (on a gha basis). In order to determine the footprints associated with biofuel resources and various low carbon transition pathways, the overall environmental footprint has been disaggregated into various components: bioproductive and built land, carbon emissions, embodied energy, materials and waste, transport, and water consumption.

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Why is it important?

This component based approach facilitates the examination of sustainability issues quite broadly, along with specific matters (such as the linkages associated with the so-called ‘energy-land-water nexus’). These studies represent ‘indicative’ ways of evaluating the performance of renewables-based products and transition pathways in the light of imperfect information. Such assessments provide a valuable evidence base for developers, policy makers, and other stakeholders.

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