Footprint Network Blog - Footprint Standards
Call for Abstracts
Footprint Forum’s Academic Conference: The State of the Art in Ecological Footprint Theory and Applications
Wednesday, June 9 2010: 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm, dinner at 8:00 pm
Thursday, June 10 2010: 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm (breakout session of public conference)
An event of the Footprint Forum: Meet the Winners of the 21st Century. Colle Val d’Elsa, 7-12 June 2010
Global Footprint Network is calling for abstracts for presentation at the Academic Conference of the Footprint Forum: Meet the Winners of the 21st Century to be held June 7-12, 2010, in Colle di Val d’Elsa, Italy, just outside of Siena, Italy. Submissions are welcome on issues pertinent to biocapacity and Ecological Footprint. Abstracts will be selected for presentation. If your abstract is selected, you will have the opportunity to speak at the session for up to 15 minutes, followed by at least 10 minutes of discussion. In addition, a special issue of Ecological Indicators will include extended versions of a selection of papers presented at Footprint Forum.
About Footprint Forum:
Copenhagen – COP15 – showed us that national governments and political leaders are finding it difficult to act collectively in the global interest. Global Footprint Network is convinced that climate action will only gather momentum once nations see that decisive action is in their own best interest. This compelling self-interest story becomes obvious once we understand climate change in the context of ecological resource constraints, as one of a number of related crises – food, energy, water, biodiversity, and so forth – emerging from humanity’s systematic overuse of available resources. This reframing presents a great impetus for transformation. The focus of Footprint Forum 2010 is on how we can capitalize on this opportunity.
Learn more about Footprint Forum.
Details of Submission:
Proposed topics should focus on NEW developments on the Ecological Footprint in areas of:
1. Theory;
2. Applications; or
3. Communication/policy relevance.
All submissions must be a two-page abstract, and include an introduction, summary of methods and results, and a discussion section.
Click here to download the template.
Click here to download the abstract submission format and guidelines
Note: If your abstract is not selected, you will have the option of having it presented as a poster at the Forum.
Email submissions to footprintforum2010@unisi.it . Deadline for submission is 31 March 2010.
Categories:
Footprint Standards
Public Comment Period Open on New Footprint Standards
The Ecological Footprint Standards Committee is inviting public comment on its proposed 2009 Ecological Footprint Standards. The standards are designed to ensure that Ecological Footprint assessments are produced consistently and according to community-proposed best-practices. These new methodological standards focus on Ecological Footprint studies for organizations and products. They were created over the past six months by the Ecological Footprint Standards Committee and the Standards Working Group.
Categories:
Footprint Standards
New Data Shows Humanity’s Ecological Debt Compounding
At the current rate humanity is using natural resources and producing waste, by the mid-2030s we will require the resources of two planets to meet our demands, according to figures released today by Global Footprint Network. The data comes at a critical time, as the economic crisis felt around the globe has made it painstakingly clear: Debt and overspending can continue for a while but ultimately have dire consequences.
Categories:
Ecological Limits, Footprint for Government, Footprint Standards, Human Development
Footprint a Centerpiece of Europe’s Beyond GDP Conference
GDP is the most recognized indicator in the world, but a country’s high GDP does not always mean that its people are doing well. This is the reason that over 500 high-level economic, social and environmental experts met at the historic Beyond GDP International Conference in Brussels in late November. The European Commission, European Parliament, Club of Rome, OECD and WWF hosted this high-level conference with the objectives of clarifying which indices are most appropriate to measure progress, and how these can best be integrated into the decision-making process and taken up by public debate. The Ecological Footprint was featured as a central alternative to the GDP at the conference, most notably in a keynote address by WWF’s President and former minister of Nigeria, Emeka Anyaoku.
Categories:
Footprint for Government, Footprint Standards, Our Partners’ Work
What exactly is the Carbon Footprint?
Carbon dioxide is emitted whenever human activities involve the burning of fossil fuels. This waste will accumulate in the atmosphere, contributing to global climate change, unless it can be captured and stored by plants. The carbon Footprint therefore measures the demand on biocapacity that results from burning fossil fuels in terms of the amount of forest area required to sequester these carbon dioxide emissions. Note that this does not suggest planting forests is the ‘solution’ to climate change; on the contrary, it shows that the biosphere does not have sufficient capacity to sequester all the carbon we are currently emitting.
Categories:
Carbon Footprint, Footprint Standards