Ecological Footprint

On the Calculator I got 6.1 which was about the middle. However, the calculator doesn't determine the relative size of the nation and its locality into its calculations. In addition it only calculates airtravel which is a major contributor but espeically for a lot of the students at ANU they would drive home ever so often. This process would increase your footprint as its a solo act.

In addition its not far to compare people who live on campus to people who live at home and people who live on their own. As different aspects contribute. For example Living one your own seems to contribute a lot more to your footprint because the food, products and services aren't shared amongst people.

India

Requirements

Dear Everyone,

There are two goals that need to be accomplished for this weeks collaboration:

To share your ecological footprint with your fellow collaborators, and discuss your reactions to each others footprint (be honest but no need to be brutally honest - keep discussions amicable. If you don't feel comfortable sharing your footprint, just give an indication, or range of what it might be.)

To create your second collaboration entry for your learning portfolio on campus sustainability, which addresses the following question:
What are the 'main' challenges to sustainability? What stops us from being sustainable?

India

Ecological footprints

My ecological footprint as given by the Apollo calculator was 2.2. In our tutorial group, I think the range was generally from 1-point-something to 4-point-something. Anyway, we were trying to determine which factors would result in a higher rating, but in the end no one could reach a conclusion since we found that not everyone was given the same questions. Apparently, your earlier responses will affect what questions you are given later.

Someone made the point that this calculator underemphasizes electricity usage compared to other calculators she’s done. Maybe Singaporeans will get a lower score then, since we use air-conditioning so much. Personally, I find that there’s a very strong emphasis on transport, so those who fly regularly e.g. exchange students, got a really high score compared to the rest. Therefore, the weighting of each factor can be very subjective, leading to variations in the calculated result.

Another problem raised was that the footprint calculator only asks about people’s homes, but how about their footprint at work/leisure? For instance, I don’t have air-conditioning at home but lately, I’ve been spending more time in school than I do at home, and using the school’s air-conditioning, so my actual footprint might be higher if that’s factored in.

Oops, it seems that this post has turned into a critique of the footprint calculator but really, I wonder just how useful and meaningful it is to arbitrarily combine so many different variables into a single score.

Si En

Campus Sustainability

The word sustainability gets thrown around a lot. However, throughout the world university campuses are leading by example with the introduction of environmental action plans. These institutions are cities within themselves so if a microcosm of society can effect change the rest of us should follow their lead.