Re: [greenyes] Ecological Footprint Search

["Roger Guttentag" <rgutten@no.address>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alison Charbonneau [mailto:dcharb@no.address]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 3:11 PM
> To: Toral Jha
> Subject: GRRN - Toral Jha - GRRN
>
>
> I am a HS teacher. My students are researching their ecological footprint.
> Each one picked a consumer product and is tracing it back to it's natural
> resources, and the origin of these raw materials. Can you suggest
resources
> for us?  Thanks
===================================================================

 Dear Alison and GreenYesers:

There is actually a great number of informational resources on the Web
regarding the concept of ecological footprinting.  I have provided below
links to a few of the more well-known ones.  These, in turn, will reference
other sites in case you are interested in doing further research.

The World Wildlife Fund publishes the Living Planet Report, which contains a
lengthy discussion of global environmental conditions in terms of the
ecological footprint concept.  The 2002 report link is provided below.  This
will be a very good background reference for you as you work with the other
EF tools mentioned in this message.

http://www.panda.org/news_facts/publications/general/livingplanet/index.cfm

Two sites that provide links to EF tools and calculators are Redefining
Progress and Best Foot Forward.

http://www.redefiningprogress.org/programs/sustainabilityindicators/ef/
http://www.bestfootforward.com/footprinting2.htm

In addition, there are all kinds of tools that have been developed to show
the impact of our lifestyles with respect to various measures.  Here are two
interesting ones I've found:

EPA Region 7 has a Virtual Environemntal Lunch Footprint calculator that can
be downloaded and used to evaluate the environmental impact of different
lunch choices.  I've not used it but would be interested in seeing comments
about its utility from anyone who has.

http://www.epa.gov/region7/education_resources/teachers/velf.htm

The Center for Neighborhood Technology has a site that examines the air
emission impacts of different products and lifestyles called AirHead.
Again, I would be interested in comments on this site.

http://www.airhead.org/

Good luck in your efforts and let us know which ones worked best for your
students.

Roger Guttentag
610-584-8836
rgutten@no.address
Read "Recycling in Cyberspace" in Resource Recycling.
http://www.resource-recycling.com/links.html