The Global Footprint Network: Advancing the Science of Sustainability
This website is very beneficial for all who are concerned about sustainability and the over consumption of our planet’s finite resources. The Global Footprint Network (GFN) is the practical application of Rees and Wackernagel’s theoretical framework from the book, Our Ecological Footprint. The main premise behind the websites design was to create a practical awareness and to educate decision-makers at all levels of society, that in our current global situation, humanity is causing an ecological overshoot, where we are consuming more annually than can be replenished each year. A fundamental change in lifestyle is urgently needed. The GFN has tools in place to encourage such change.
One of the many educational tools that are in place on this website is the fun, interactive Footprint Calculator. It is designed to analyze the region you reside in (all continents covered), whether you are a child (simplified easily understandable questions) or adult, and also gives you the option if you would like, to answer a basic or more detailed questionnaire. In addition to the footprint assessment, the calculator provides systemic and individual strategies for future reduction of footprints. By using the combination of the Ecological footprint data and the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI), the GFN can design programs for nations, business’, and cities as well as individuals, presenting a pie chart graph that analyzes where your consumption was greatest and how to decrease it. The authenticity of this website is evident in its impressive list of partnerships with NGO’s, NPO’s and other educational and research institutions from around the globe.
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(Retrieved July 24, 2011 from |
A link to the website was included in an earlier blog, but here it is again:
The Global Footprint Network. (2003). Retrieved June 28, 2010, from http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/
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