What Can Be Done to Reduce Ecological Footprint?
Ecological footprint is the concept used to express the environmental impact of human activities around the world. Many activities such as meeting energy needs or consumption have an impact on the ecosystem. Although natural resources have the ability to renew themselves, it is necessary to reduce the ecological footprint in order not to damage it.
What is Ecological Footprint?
Ecological footprint is the concept that expresses how much space is required for the consumption and reproduction of natural resources and the disposal of the resulting wastes after the activities carried out by people around the world. If the ecological footprint has a large value, it can be understood that many of the natural resources are consumed. At this point, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) states that the rate of renewal of the world’s resources is low in relation to the amount of consumption.
While July 29th of 2021 is referred to as World Overshoot Day, it can be understood that the capacity is already full today. For this reason, it is necessary to reduce the ecological footprint in order to preserve the natural balance in the world.
Thanks to the ecological footprint, it can be determined, for example, how much natural space a population segment needs for a sustainable life. This concept was first put forward by William Rees and then developed by Mathis Wackernagel, and in 1996 this duo provided an explanation with a detailed study on the book “Our Ecological Footprint”.
The global hectare is used as the unit for ecological footprint. The calculation is based on consumption, production area and population variables. The formula used for calculation;
Ecological Footprint (10,000 m² ha) = Consumption x Production Area x Population.
If the concept of biocapacity is also defined in terms of understanding ecological impact, this concept is used for the renewability rates of resources within a given geography and the disposal capacity of the resulting wastes. If biocapacity is exceeded in a geography, an ecological deficit emerges. In other words, in the face of human activities, natural resources have become unable to renew themselves sufficiently. In the event of an ecological deficit, the ability of future generations to meet their needs will gradually deplete.
What are the Components of Ecological Footprint?
Humans benefit from nature at many different points due to their different needs. In particular, resources and natural areas are used intensively for both production and consumption. WWF defines the ecological footprint as 6 components;
- Agricultural land footprint
- Structured space footprint
- Grassland footprint
- Carbon footprint
- Forest footprint
- The fishing area has identified its footprint components.
Improvements in any of these components will be needed to reduce the ecological footprint. For example, reducing carbon dioxide emissions will reduce the carbon footprint.
What Can Be Done to Reduce Ecological Footprint?
Thanks to the ecological footprint values used to understand the human burden on nature, it can be understood how much effort is needed to reduce the environmental impact. Human beings cause an ecological footprint with their activities in obtaining energy, transportation, consumption, waste generation and nutrition. In this case, considering these needs, 9 methods can be examined in terms of what can be done to reduce the ecological footprint. These methods can be seen separately under the headings of energy needs, eating habits, transportation activities, consumption behaviors and waste management.
Energy Needs
- By shifting towards renewable energy, the use of fossil fuels can prevent the emission of greenhouse gases and the increase in carbon footprint. Instead of using natural resources in an unregulated way, projects can be developed by switching to unlimited and renewable energy, such as choosing solar energy, especially in homes, and choosing wind or hydroelectric power plants in cities.
- Within the framework of achieving energy efficiency, individuals should reduce the use of fossil-based electricity, especially for lighting and heating in their homes. In this way, energy-related emissions can be reduced. In this context, it is possible to reduce the ecological footprint by turning off unnecessary electronic devices, using devices such as washing machines and dishwashers that provide high energy efficiency, applying insulation in homes and efficiency.
Nutrition Habits
- Consuming less meat will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from livestock farming activities and thus reduce the carbon footprint. In other words, instead of consuming more red meat, more foods with low environmental impact should be consumed.
- By choosing local foods, when you choose foods that you can obtain in your region, the emissions resulting from the logistics processes for these foods will be reduced and the ecological footprint will be reduced. At this point, it is necessary to turn more towards products that are transparently documented for their environmental impact and contribute to a reduction in the ecological footprint.
Transportation Activities
- Thanks to the choice of public transportation, public transportation will reduce greenhouse gas emissions instead of increasing the carbon footprint of individual vehicles by using more fossil fuels. Although carbon emissions are also encountered in public transportation, there is an opportunity to reduce an ecological footprint instead of more vehicles and more emissions individually.
- In terms of choosing direct flights, airline travel has very high carbon emissions and is seen as a cause of global warming. Therefore, carbon footprint can be reduced by choosing direct flights instead of connecting flights.
Consumption Behaviors
- Within the scope of reducing disposable plastics; materials such as plastic plates, plastic forks, spoons and straws, which are generally not recyclable, create a permanent waste problem in nature. The ecological footprint can be reduced by choosing recyclable materials instead of these disposable plastic products.
- Conscious consumption habits will be achieved if more second-hand products are used. When you choose new products, there will be more environmental impact as a new production process will start. For conscious consumption, it is necessary to prefer longer-lasting products and try to use second-hand products as much as possible. This leads to the possibility of less consumption and less waste, while the ecological footprint can be reduced without eroding biological capacity.
Waste Management
- By increasing recycling and reusing recyclable materials such as glass, metal or paper, resources are used more efficiently, pollution is reduced, and carbon can be better managed. Similarly, recycling should be made more widespread, with a greater emphasis on second-hand use.
