Willamette’s Ecological Footprint
So What Exactly is Ecological Footprint Analysis?
Ecological Footprint Analysis (EFA) was developed in 1996 by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees as a quantitative tool to measure sustainability. The indicator estimates the amount of bioproductive land that is needed to support the resource consumption and waste assimilation of a given human population or economy. For example, a measurement such as carbon dioxide emissions, which is typically given in pounds, kilograms, or tons, can be converted into the acreage of treed area needed to transform it back into healthy atmospheric oxygen. EFA has profound implications for assessing sustainability on a variety of scales and enables more informed decision-making that takes environmental impacts into consideration. Footprint analyses have been conducted for Willamette University. This site seeks to evaluate this footprint, identify areas that need improvement, and to make suggestions for what can be done so that our school can reduce the breadth of its impact.
The Ecological Footprint section of this Sustainability web site was researched, compiled and written by the following students: Onica Presnel ’06 (environmental studies), Megan Scheelar ’06 (environmental studies), Erin Stone ’06 (environmental studies), Tim Stumhofer ’06 (politics) and James Whiteley ’06 (environmental studies).