What is your ecological footprint and how do you feel about it?

 Chiara Gunella (UAB) – 5th of April 2022

Sometimes we are not aware of our annual, monthly, or daily ecological footprint. It’s something that is hard to calculate and measure. However, there are free online tools that can help us understand our impact on the planet.

Do you want to know more?

This week we want to introduce you to the footprint calculator. Through a list of questions about your daily habits, this calculator allows you to measure your ecological footprint.

We know it may sound stressful, but this page does not only give us an image of our ecological footprint… it also provides strategies and solutions we can use to reduce our impact.

In www.footprintcalculator.org you will find:

• A tool to measure the environmental impact of housing, transportation, and food.
• Possible solutions to promote change. An example? The website asks users inspiring questions that call us to action such as: “Can you take transit, bicycle or walk instead of driving solo at least once a month? Once a week?” or “Can you be a smarter shopper and reduce food waste? Or, can you try a new vegetarian recipe once a month? Once a week?”
• Empathy. While the people behind the website acknowledge that understanding the condition of the planet can be stressful, they also offer hope with simple guidelines to transform fear into action. They encourage users to take account of how they feel, transforming fear and confusion into simple gestures of resilience. For us at GreenSCENT, this aspect of understanding is incredibly important. Taking into account how people feel in the fight against the environmental crisis is key!

For us, this is an interesting tool to open discussion and to know more about ourselves.

Do you want to know more? 

Check out the footprintnetwork!