Issue 17, December 19, 2008

An engine of economic activity in China, Hong Kong is also a major center of resource consumption in the country, according to a study released this month by Global Footprint Network and WWF.

At 4.4 global hectares per person, Hong Kong residents have an Ecological Footprint twice that typical for China as a whole. Hong Kong also has one of the greatest ecological deficits in the world, according to Hong Kong Ecological Footprint Report: Living Beyond Our Means. The report details Hong Kong’s resource use and its role in the overall ecological picture of China – a country that now ties the U.S. as the largest user of the world’s biocapacity.

Global Footprint Network has completed an extensive Web site redesign, with improved navigation, more interactive features, updated visuals and clearer, more concise language. The site is organized into five key sections. About Us, Footprint Basics (general Footprint explanations, data and the work we do in various sectors), Footprint Science (detailed information on accounts, research and methodology), Partnerships, and Resources (our newsroom, personal calculator and downloadable copies of all of our reports.)

We have also launched a version of the site in German, and will be adding additional languages in the early part of next year.

Click here to explore our new site!

After completing a thorough, two-year review and update to the methodology for calculating national Footprints, Global Footprint Network has published three resources supporting the 2008 Edition of the National Footprint Accounts. They present comprehensive results, provide a step-by-step guide to the equations and calculations, and offer complete transparency of the source data.

The three documents are downloadable from our Web site. They are:
•The Ecological Footprint Atlas 2008,
•Calculation Methodology for the National Footprint Accounts, 2008 Edition and
•Guidebook to the National Footprint Accounts 2008.

There is no resource more critical to life on the planet than water – yet as a result of human activity, we find it as so many other vital reserves to be in increasingly short supply.  With drought and water pollution deepening concerns, the Living Planet Report 2008 (released recently by Global Footprint Network, WWF and Zoological Society of London) adopted a new index to measure human demand on water: the water footprint, developed by University of Twente, Netherlands, Professor Arjen Hoekstra.

The Ecological Footprint as a sustainability indicator adds an important dimension to GDP, and should have equal weight in guiding policy. Such is the conclusion of a committee convened by the European Commission to research policy instruments that could support more balanced decision-making than GDP alone.

A Sustainable Investment Firm’s Response to the Financial Crisis

Environmental concerns tend to take a back seat in tough economic times. But at least one asset management firm is taking exactly the opposite tack – stressing that now, more than ever, sound investing means adequately valuing the underlying natural assets upon which all our economic systems depend.

“So far, the economic crisis we are facing has been explained by financial leverage,” said Carsten Henningsen, co-founder of the global sustainability fund Portfolio 21. “However, there is a direct link between the financial crisis and the ecological crisis. To the extent that ecological limits place limits on the growth rates of earnings, stock prices will fall.”