Get Involved!

Why measure footprints?
Our laid-back Aussie lifestyle takes up a lot of space to provide us with food, clothing, transport, waste, energy and other lifestyle needs. As a nation we each consume 7.09 hectares of global resources every year while the global availability is 1.88 hectares. It's not rocket science that the earth cannot keep up with this sort of impact. But how to reduce our footprint without affecting our quality of life?

Measure your footprint
The team who are participating in the Footprints Challenge took a survey to measure their footprint before beginning to look at their lifestyle. If you would like to calculate your ecological footprint click on one of the links below:

http://projects.powerhousemuseum.com/ecologic/bigfoot/mid/
http://www.earthday.net
http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/eco-footprint

Reduce your footprint
There are many ways you can choose to reduce your footprint. For each of us the things that work are different. Below is a check list you can download with some ideas or check out our resources page to find more. Remember…

• Your sustainable journey is life long, success comes when you don't think about the choices any more and you see financial and health benefits
• Try one thing at a time, rather than overwhelm yourself
• What works for one person may not be suitable for another
• Technology and availability changes. If you can't find it now, try again another day
• Sharing experiences and hearing what others have done is a great way to learn
• Joining email groups is an easy way to keep informed

Use the following links and our resources pages to help with your research:

Our Environment 'It's a Living Thing'
Natural Capitalism
See what the sceptics think
CSIRO Sustainability network

Email group
You can be part of the sharing and learning by joining our email group. Members are able to post questions, ideas and experiences to the whole group. You can choose to have individual emails or a daily digest (for those with busy in-boxes). To join please send a blank email to footprinters-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au.

Background
The Footprints Challenge is a joint initiative between North Sydney, Lane Cove and Willoughby councils. The project started in late 2004 and will be finished mid 2005. Funding for Footprints comes from the 'Our Environment - it's a living thing' programme, administered by the Department of Environment and Conservation

The aim of Footprints is to work with a group of generation X community members (30 and 40 something's) to calculate and then set about reducing their ecological footprint - while still making sure they have a great quality of life.

Our events are based around fun activities - and we even manage to get in a few beers at the end! To get involved, join in our email group or contact your council representative.