In 2005, UTM devised an “ecological footprint calculator” that measured the amount of natural resources a typical UTM student needs. It uses six categories: materials (including waste), land under structures like buildings and roads, water, energy, food, and transportation. According to their formula, UTM community members consume an equivalent of 1.04 hectares of land. The average Canadian consumes 7.8 hectares.
Energy use like heating and lighting accounts for 70 per cent of UTM’s footprint, transportation for 18 per cent, food for only five percent, built-up land for one per cent, and water for a parched 0.21 per cent. However, these stats are only a conservative measurement-the actual footprint is likely to be greater. Some human activities are too difficult to measure, like recent construction on campus, and were not taken into account.
UTM modified the detailed framework of the Sierra Youth Coalition’s Sustainable Campuses Project to devise a calculator specific to UTM. The framework breaks down into two sections: People (the social and economic aspects of sustainability) and Ecosystem (the environmental aspects). Altogether, the assessment considers 170 indicators of sustainability. U of T’s Sustainability Office is applying the framework to the downtown campus, as well.
“We are hoping to have about half of the indicators complete by the end of the spring term, with a more long-term goal of having the assessment complete by the summer of 2008,” said the Sustainability Office’s Ashley Taylor.
Ecological footprint measurements aim to spread awareness of consumption patterns, with the goal of improving environmental sustainability. Footprints can be reduced by decreasing the population or by reducing the amount of land each person consumes.
If everyone lived like Canadians, requiring eight hectares of land each, it would take four Earths to support humanity.
-Sabeen Abbas
