The ecological footprint is a tool that works out the amount of land that you need to provide a population with all their resources and to absorb all their waste. This can be compared with the capacity of the earth to provide natural resources and to deal with the waste and pollution created.

York's ecological footprint

The Stockholm Environment Institute's study has calculated the ecological footprint of York. The study concentrated on:

• energy use
• food and packaging
• housing
• material consumption
• transport
• water supply.

Some of this land will be found within York itself while the rest will be in other countries and continents. The study shows that York has an Ecological footprint of 1,254,600 (6.98 hectares per person). The land area required to sustain York is 46 times the size of the city and is nearly the same as the whole of the North York Moors National Park. The 6.98 hectares to sustain one person in York is a little over the national average of 6.3 but way over the fair Earthshare of 2 ha per person. In order for York to approach a sustainable level there would need to be a reduction in its ecological footprint of 71%.

The Stockholm Environmental Institute Based at the University of York is the organisation responsible for developing the Ecological Footprint, for more information see the Stockholm Environmental Institute website.

Find out what your ecological footprint is by using the individual calculator. The council is not responsible for the content or reliability of external websites.