Footprint Network Blog - Carbon Footprint

Radiohead Sizes Up its Footprint

Radiohead, a well-known British rock-band, recently commissioned Global Footprint Network partner Best Foot Forward (BFF) to analyze the band’s Footprint and help reduce their tour’s carbon emissions. BFF’s report shows that transport, how fans get to Radiohead’s shows, is the most important lever for reducing the tour’s Footprint. 

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Scottish Government Adopts the Ecological Footprint as a Performance Measure

The Scottish Government announced this November that it will use the Ecological Footprint as one of its performance measures as part of its innovative National Performance Framework. The Framework provides a unified vision and quantifiable benchmarks against which the government’s priorities are measured.

One of Scottland’s goals is to “… reduce the local and global environmental impact of our consumption and production “and to ‘reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050’. The Local Footprints Project, a Global Footprint Network partner, has just issued a consumption based analysis of Scotland’s Carbon Footprint, based on its 32 local authorities.

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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.

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South Australia seeks to reduce its Ecological Footprint 30% by 2050

The Premier of South Australia, Hon Mike Rann has sought to bring ‘Ecological Footprint’ thinking to the core of decision-making, by including the Ecological Footprint as a key sustainability indicator in South Australia’s Strategic Plan. The Plan establishes a target to reduce South Australia’s Ecological Footprint by 30% by 2050.

The 2007 edition of the plan also seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2050. Greenhouse gas emissions make up more than half of South Australia’s Ecological Footprint and the aggressive reduction target has been approved by the legislature.

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