Calculating an ecological footprint measures the impact of human activities in terms of the  the amount of biologically productive land and water area an individual, city, country or region or entire humanity uses to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb waste it generates through modern technology and waste management practices.

More simply,  it is a measure of sustainability that informs us how many environmental resources necessary to produce the goods and services required to support a particular lifestyle. Often it can be included in working out how many resources countries have available to them and comparing that with how many resources they need.

The WWF provides an ecological footprint calculator that anyone can use to calculate their individual ecological footprint, click on button below.

Ecological footprint calculator

At the University of Manchester Students’ Union we recognise that our daily activities may result in negative impacts on the environment.  We’ve compiled the below report to try and identify the main areas, what we’re currently doing to try and mitigate this, and what we could do in the future. 

The main areas are:

• Energy usage
• Noise
• Waste

The full report can be found here