Sharing Nature's Interest

Ecological Footprints as an Indicator of Sustainability

Nicky Chambers, Craig Simmons, Mathis Wackernagel

Ecological Footprinting is rapidly being adopted as the most effective and practical way to measure our impact on the environment - in both large and small scale planning and development. Government agencies, NGOs, local authorities, planners and managers are all turning to it, since without a way of measuring consequences we cannot hope to live within the environmental resources available. We have to live off nature's interest, not its capital. "Sharing Nature's Interest "provides a simple and straightforward introduction to ecological footprint analysis, showing how it can be done, and how to measure the "footprints" of activities, lifestyles, organizations and regions. Case studies clearly illustrate its effectiveness at national, organizational, individual and product levels. An invaluable resource for anyone attempting to understand or quantify human impacts on the environment.