UNST

126a Spring 2016:

Eco-Audit Assignment (Due Monday, May 2)
This project is worth 10% of your final grade.

Introduction

An ecological footprint is a metric used to evaluate the demands placed on

ecosystems by human resource usage (Rees, 1992; Wackernagel and Rees, 1996). At
its simplest, an ecological footprint is the amount of land required to support a
particular individual, city, or country with a particular lifestyle. Lifestyle in this
analysis would be defined by diet, consumer goods, services, housing, energy
sources and usage, and waste management.

The ecological capacity of the planet is calculated according to ecosystem services
(food production, carbon sequestration in forests, and so on) in individual nations.
Viewed with such a metric, the Earth as a whole has a certain human carrying
capacity, a number of people who can be supported in a particular lifestyle. Because
modern developed-world lifestyles place higher demands on ecosystems, Earth's
present-day carrying capacity is smaller than it would be if all people lived less
resource-intensive lifestyles. A world with 7+ billion inhabitants thus requires
individuals and nations to make choices that lower their individual footprint
size so that more people can fit in the available ecological capacity. Sustainability
requires a mean ecological footprint that when multiplied by the population size, fits
within the available ecological area of the planet. It is important to recognize that
some people in some countries live below that footprint while others live above it.

Assignment

Download the EcoFootprint Excel workbook from d2L and examine the various
worksheets and their contents. The first tab is labeled Food Audit; this is set up to
allow you to track your eating habits for 7 days; it also includes space to keep track
of the number of different types of containers used and the percentage of food
locally grown, purchased in restaurants, wasted, and composted. The spreadsheet is
set up to calculate annual totals and daily averages for you food consumption and to
automatically transfer values to the second (EcoFootprint) tab where they are used
to start the analysis you are asked to complete with this assignment.

Note that the EcoFootprint tab set up with six different tables/categories: 1) Food,
2) Housing, 3) Transportation, 4) Goods, 5) Services, and 6) Waste. Enter data in the
dark green-shaded cells only; the light green-shaded cells should
automatically fill from the data entered in the Food Audit tab; other
cells will be populated via calculations based on your entries. Near the top of the
Food table is a cell (F12) to enter the percentage of food wasted; the default
(average) value is 26% (yes!); change as you feel is appropriate. If you are eating
out, there is a separate line at the bottom of the Food table (D40) where you can

enter the dollars spent. A third tab, EcoFootGlobal, provides average ecofootprint
values for most countries on earth.
Your analysis will only be as good as the data you enter into the spreadsheets. Time
is required to complete this sheet successfully. You will need to research
some of these items. The electricity source distribution (in bright blue cells) is based
on PGE data obtained from the Stat of Oregons Where Does Oregons Electricity
Come From? site (available thru d2L resource module). If you dont use PGE power,
you can substitute in more appropriate values (note, they must add up to 100.00%
or youll get an error). Most electricity is generated with a much greater percentage
of fossil fuel (averaging 88% in America).

Some Practical Instructions:
1.
Both metric and US units are included you can select by placing
either an s or m in cell H3. Make sure that you measure (or
measure and convert) accordingly.
2.
You are asked to provide values for various things from housing
area to monthly pounds or kg of cheese and butter. In many cases,
a popup comment will appear showing you the American percapita average value. You can use that as a guide, but please dont
assume you are average and just enter the numbers provided.
Think about YOUR consumption. Measure where you can.
Carefully estimate when needed.
3.
To help you in being objective you should account for seasonal
differences, taking an average that best represents your yearly
usage. Also, be sure to only count your individual share. Here are
a few examples. Suppose you have two roommates and you
want to calculate your home electricity use in a residence that
uses electricity for heat:
If you have access to all of last years electric bills, this is easy. Add
up the kilowatt hours for the last 12 months, divide by 12 (to get
an average monthly value) and then divide again by 3 (for your
share). Enter your results in kilowatt hrs.
If you only have last months (cold month) bill but maybe you
remember paying half that back in October, then estimate by
multiplying the kWh on last months bill by 5 (cold months) and
half amount by 7 (warm months), and then divide twelve and again
by three.
4. Suppose you typically take the bus to campus, but only on class
days which, say for you, happen to be Mon. Thur. You would
divide the month into class days and not class (other) days. Then
to calculate your monthly miles (or kilometers) riding the bus to
school you would multiply the miles (kilometers) of one days
roundtrip times the number of class days in the month. Enter your
results in miles (or kilometers).

If you are in this class because you think sustainability is important, I hope
you will take this assignment seriously as well.

Components of the written assignment (i.e., what you need to turn in):
1.) Spreadsheet as an Excel file renamed with your first name (e.g.,
BenEcoAudit.xls)
2.) Typed responses to questions A D.
3.) Reflective essay.

Answer the following questions:
A. What is your total ecological footprint? How does it compare to the average
footprint for the United States? Is your lifestyle above or below the global
carrying capacity computed by the Center for Sustainable Economy*? Include an
appropriate graph created in Excel to illustrate the differences.

B. Do you think that result is a reasonable representation of your actual footprint?
If your answer is no, what do you think is missing and what might you do about
that?

C. Examine the individual elements of your ecological footprint. What aspects of
your lifestyle make relatively large contributions to your footprint?

D. Suppose you decide to try to reduce your ecological footprint. Identify three
changes you could make that would have the largest effect. You can use the
worksheet to examine the effect of different changes. Suppose you reduce your
driving by 25%. How much does that affect your footprint?


Reflective Essay: Select one of the changes you identified in question (D) and try it
for two weeks. We will discuss the outcomes of your projects after the assignment is
completed. Keep daily notes on your project and write a short summary essay (~
2 pages) reflecting on the experience when you are done. Was the change you
decided to make easy? Did you give up?

*According to the analysis made by the Center for Sustainable Economy, there are
15.71 renewable global hectares available per person yet we demand, as a global
community 21.91 hectares per person (See EcoFootGlobal tab in spreadsheet).