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A tourism impact indicator needs to take into account the full consequences of tourism regardless of where the impact is felt. The ecological footprint (EF) is one such indicator which works to estimate the full "resource consumption and waste assimilation requirements of a defined human population or economy." The EF is measured in terms of the resources (corresponding bioproductive land area) required to provide the goods and services consumed. If this exceeds what is available then the rate of consumption is unsustainable.
For example the EF associated with a hotel could include the actual land area of the hotel itself, plus a calculation of the resources required to: build and set up; maintain the hotel; run it through heating, lighting, powering and cleaning. If the hotel provides guests with food, there will also be the land area associated with growing, storing, processing and transporting meat, cereals, fruits and vegetables.
One key benefit of the EF is that it describes a finite limit to resource use. We only have one earth with a finite area of biologically productive land measured in global hectares (gha). The total bioproductive land area can be divided by the world's population to reveal a global ‘fair share' identified by WWF in 2006 as 1.8 gha. This 1.8 gha is the average amount of land a global citizen has for provision of food, materials, energy and waste absorption each year and includes their travel and tourism activity.
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) has developed a methodology to construct complete footprint calculations for the Ecological Footprint. The methodology also allows the carbon dioxide emissions caused both directly and indirectly by an activity or accumulated over the life stages of a product, to be calculated and assigned. This is known as a carbon footprint.
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SEI have just released a policy brief on Scotland's Footprint.
Our study has shown that Scotland's carbon footprint has grown by 11 per cent since 1992.
The figure includes greenhouse gases released overseas during the production of goods later consumed in Scotland and so is the most accurate gauge of the country's emissions to date.
While emissions generated in Scotland fell by 13 percent between 1995 and 2004, when trade is taken account, greenhouse gases rose by 11 per cent over the same period.
The full policy brief can be found on SEI's website.
An article has also be published in the Sunday Herald and can be found here.
The NHS England successfully launched their Carbon Reduction Strategy ‘Saving Carbon, Improving Health' on 27th January 2009. SEI contributed to the evidence base for the strategy, carrying out a consumption-based carbon footprint of the NHS England, who represents 25% of England's public sector emissions. The first part of the project examined historical emissions and identified the drivers behind a rising carbon footprint. This forms the first report published in 2008. The second phase of the project projects future emissions and models a range of policy options and their carbon reduction potential.
Further information can be found at the NHS Sustainable Development Unit website
Our phase 1 report for the NHS England carbon analysis project is available online.
This report provides a 2004 baseline for the NHS, a time series and a supply chain analysis of the pharmaceutical and medical equipment sectors (the highest impact procurement sectors of the NHS England).
We are in the process of developing a carbon scenario tool to contribute to the NHS England Carbon Strategy and target setting. The deadline for this is January and another report will be issued. We are also looking into repeating the study for the NHS Scotland, Wales and NI.