Ecological Footprinting (EF) is a way of measuring human resource consumption compared to the resources that are actually available to us. 

Ecological Footprints measure average human consumption of the earth's finite resources based on where we live, what we eat, how we travel etc. This is then interpreted as a physical area of land that would be needed to sustain our lifestyle.

If you divided the earth's biologically reproductive land equally between everybody who lived on earth (minus a percentage for other plants and animals), each person would be entitled to around 1.8 hectares each - or about 27 tennis courts!

The UK population averages a footprint of approx 5.45 hectares (WWF, Living Planet Report, 2004) - or 82 tennis courts. You do the sums.... 

It will come as no surprise to learn that urban areas will almost always have an ecological footprint larger than their actual land area. 

So the challenge that faces us today, is improving and maintaining standards of living for everybody, without further damaging the the planet in the process.