Ecological Footprint
Ecological Footprint is a measure of resource use; it measures
how much productive land and sea is needed to provide us with the
energy, water and materials we use in our everyday lives
This is measured in global hectares or gha.
The world average ecological footprint in 2.2 global hectares
while the amount of land available per person globally is 1.8
global hectares.
Currently the footprint can also be used to calculate the carbon
emissions generated from the oil, coal and gas we burn, and it
determines how much land is required to absorb our waste.
Footprints can be calculated at all scales; for a country, town,
or region, right down to an individual.
Ashford's Ecological Footprint
Ashford has been the first growth area to measure the
environmental impact of it’s growth plans using footprinting.
Currently, if everyone in the world consumed resources in the same
way we would need 3.3 planets.
- The total Ecological Footprint per person in the UK is 5.45
global hectares (gha/person)
- The available footprint across the planet is 1.8 gha per
person
- The South East has the highest footprint of all English regions
at 6.07 gha/per person
- Ashford specifically has a footprint of 5.99 gha/per
person
Our recent study into Ashford’s footrpint by Stockholm Environment
Institute in association with the World Wildlife Fund, has shown
that planned policies will stabilise Ashford’s footprint by 2016
and lead to reductions in the longer term.
However, Ashford is committed to making further reductions to
its ecological and carbon footprint.
For full details of SEI’s finding either download the Executive
Summary or Full Report from the Document Library
page.
Useful Information and Websites