Footprint family
The link between different footprints
Each indicator (ecological-, carbon-, water footprint) has a gap that is unable to indicate the complex impact of the activity on the environment. Therefore for more detailed environmental studies it is suggested to use the footprints together (footprint family). It is expected that the different footprints to be integrated in the environmental footprint. At EU level two environmental footprint will be used, one for products and services and an other for organisations.
1) the water footprint is an indicator of water use that looks at both direct and indirect water use of a consumer or producer. The Water Footprint of an individual, community or business is defined by the total volume of freshwater used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business. Water use is measured in terms of water volumes consumed (evaporated or incorporated into the product) and polluted per unit of time.
The water footprint according to the source can be green water (mostly from rain and evaporated water), blue water (from soil or surface sources) and grey water (the polluted forms of the blue water). Standards are available to assess the water footprint.
Examples on the products water footprint (informative):
a) foods:
- oils: corn 2600 m3/ton, cotton 3800 m3/ton, soy 4200 m3/ton, rape 4300 m3/ton, palms 5000 m3/ton, sunflower 6800 m3/ton; olive 14500 m3/ton,
- fruits: melon 235 m3/ton, pineapple 255 m3/ton, orange 560 m3/ton, banana 790 m3/ton, apple 820 m3/ton, peach 910 m3/ton, pear 920 m3/ton, apricot 1300 m3/ton, plum 2200 m3/ton, grape 2400 m3/ton,
- alcoholic drinks: beer 300 m3/ton, vine 870 m3/tone
- alcohol free drink: tomato juice 270 m3/ton, grapefruit juice 675 m3/ton, orange juice 1000 m3/ton, apple juice 1100 m3/ton, pineapple juice 1300 m3/ton, coffee 130 litre/cup if we use 7 g. of coffee/cup, tee 27 litre/cup.
- meat products: chicken 4300 m3/ton, goat 5500 m3/ton, pig 6000 m3/ton, lamb 10400 m3/ton, beef 15400 m3/ton
b) industrial products: T-shirt 2900 l/pc, pair of leather shoe 8000 l,
2) the ecological footprint (EF) is a resource and emission accounting tool introduced in the early ‘90s to track human demand on the biosphere‘s regenerative capacity. It documents both direct and indirect human demands for resource production and waste assimilation and compares them with the planet‘s ecological assets (biocapacity). The expression unit is in hectare (comparing the total land area with the population).
Recognizing the limits of the growth (consumption) and taking in account the Earth natural resources the assessment of the ecological footprint take in account the available natural resources and the human consumption of foods, living conditions, transport and traffic, consumption of good and services. On each category the required land area is calculated. Standards are available to assess the ecological footprint.
Examples: the Word average ecological footprint is 1,8 ha. The figures differ from country to country, the highest ecological footprint has the United Arab Emirates 12 ha, then in the USA 9,6 ha, Finland 7,6 ha and Canada 7,2 ha. The smallest ecological footprint are in such countries as Bangladesh 0,5 ha, Somalia 0,4 ha and Afghanistan 0,1 ha. The difference between the highest and the lowest ecological footprint of countries is almost 120 fold. Hungary's ecological footprint is 3,5 ha.
As the methods to assess the ecological and carbon footprint are different, the two concepts should be used in a different ways.
3) the environmental footprint was released in April, 2013: based on the GHG Protocol for products/services and GHG Protocol for organisations the Commission published its environmental footprint guidelines, which beside the GHG emission allow other 13 threats to be evaluated as eutrophication and acidification .