Sustainable consumption is now recognised as one of the main policy challenges facing the developed world. One of the key objectives of Wales’ Sustainable Development Strategy is to reduce Wales’s global footprint.
Governments, local authorities, businesses and communities – all are struggling to devise strategies on how to achieve a good quality of life without causing harm to others. Where do we start if we don’t know how much we consume compared with what is available? The Ecological Footprint provides us with the necessary data to plan for more sustainable futures.
This Research Centre hosts a range of research papers, policy updates and other relevant information on ways to explore sustainable consumption and ecological footprint in more depth.
This report illustrates key policy changes Wales should take to reduce it’s footprint to a sustainable level by 2050
Thereport pulls together evidence surrounding sustainable lifestyles, including the tools and methods available to tackle the issue, understanding why we behave the way we do and looking at the issues surrounding production and products, which form an important part of sustainable lifestyles.
Living Planet Report 2008
The Living Planet Report 2008 explores the impact of mankind on this finite planet looking at trends in populations of wild species and our ecological footprint – the impact of humanity on the earth.
LFP Briefing – Single Outcome Agreements and the Ecological Footprint, briefing from the Local Footprints Project on how to use the footprint as an indicator, in line with the national indicators, February 2008 (pdf)
Resource Energy and Analysis Programme (REAP) presentation, Dr John Barrett, Stockholm Environment Institute, February 2007 The Footprint of Scotland’s Diet: The environmental burden of what we eat – A report for Scotland’s Global Footprint Project, September 2006 (pdf, 0.5MB)
Counting Consumption – CO2 emissions, material flows and Ecological Footprint of the UK by region and devolved country. WWF, SEI, CURE and Biffaward. March 2006, 84 pages (pdf, 2.2MB)
Resources and Energy Analysis Programme (REAP)
This programme is part of the Stockholm Environment Institute (a not-for-profit organisation) and was set up to focus on sustainable consumption and production. The aim of SEI is to help local governments, agencies and other organisations understand the footprints of residents in their areas and look at ways to reduce them. SEI’s tools can help to identify and model policies and strategies for reduction.
Next Steps for Footprinting in Wales
‘Next Steps for Footprinting in Wales’was funded and organised by the BRASS Research Centre, with the support of Footprint Wales and WWF Cymru. A series of presentations on how Ecological Footprinting in Wales is used and its future development.