How To Mind Reducing Your Eco-Footprint

Each morning (afternoon or night), we rise to the blessing, opportunity and challenge of a new day. Throughout each one that is given to us is a myriad of choices made sometimes but mostly unconsciously or absent-mindedly. I try and take the time to remind myself that reducing one's ecological footprint requires a conscious effort and is imperative to our healthy survival! Currently I am making an effort to specifically reduce my daily water footprint by taking less and shorter showers and by turning off the tap when doing the dishes and brushing teeth. To have this process of ecological personal activism at the forefront of reasons for our behaviours, it is important to understand the discourse around this topic. As taken from the Global Footprint Network site, where more info and FAQ's can be found, here are some useful terms with brief explanations from the glossary. Maybe spending as much time in barefeet as possible is a conscious start!

my dirty foot directly after departing Antigonish, Nova Scotia's Evolve Music Festival!

Consumption Footprint : The most commonly reported type of Ecological Footprint. It is the area used to support a defined population's consumption. The consumption Footprint (in gha) includes the area needed to produce the materials consumed and the area needed to absorb the waste. The consumption Footprint of a nation is calculated in the National Footprint Accounts as a nation's primary production Footprint plus the Footprint of imports minus the Footprint of exports, and is thus, strictly speaking, a Footprint of apparent consumption. The national average or per capita Consumption Footprint is equal to a country's Consumption Footprint divided by its population.

Ecological Footprint : A measure of how much biologically productive land and water an individual, population or activity requires to produce all the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates using prevailing technology and resource management practices. The Ecological Footprint is usually measured in global hectares. Because trade is global, an individual or country's Footprint includes land or sea from all over the world. Ecological Footprint is often referred to in short form as Footprint (not footprint).