Cardiff Council has found that ecological footprinting can provide a valuable insight into the effectiveness of policies to pursue sustainable development.
The concept is referenced in the Council’s Corporate Strategy and a wide range of other Council strategies that make reference to sustainable development. The concept is also used as an integral aspect of training to staff and to schools and in community engagement activities.
A guidance note outlining how to incorporate Ecological Footprinting into policy and training areas has been prepared and distributed to the Sustainable Development Advocates network within the Council Read report (link to the word report entitled Eco-footprinting advocate and environment awareness)
Cardiff Council’s first involvement with footprinting began in 2003, as a result of a pilot project to measure the footprint of an urban council – Cardiff and a rural Council – Gwynedd. The 18 month partnership project also included working with the Welsh Assembly Government Cardiff University, Stockholm Environment Institute, Bangor University, WWF and WLGA.
For Cardiff Council, the project delivered a report entitled
‘Reducing Cardiff’s Ecological Footprint’ which identified the ‘big hitters’ of the city’s footprint
Read the report
These included:
The report was presented to members and senior managers to inform on the longer term and global impacts of the City’s growth and development and identify some of the crunch issues that the City faces.
Related Projects that were included in the project were:
A Cardiff Ecological Footprint calculator has also been produced. For further information about footprinting and Cardiff Council email Sustainabledevelopment@cardiff.gov.uk