TIME | 8 September 2011, 4pm onwards
LOCATION | CSAFE Seminar Room, , Dunedin
SPEAKER | Ella Lawton
This new research project will highlight the degree to which and in what ways New Zealanders are living beyond their ‘fair earth share’ of global resources. The Ecological Footprint (EF) has been proven as an effective indicator providing the means to communicate complex environmental data in a simplified form to diverse groups (Collins, Flynn, & Netherwood, 2005) and for high level long-term community planning and strategy formation (Aall & Norland, 2005; Wilson & Grant, 2009). Methodology development and data gathering will be governed by a new four-part methodology producing a New Zealand EF template used to calculate community footprints using locally collected data and the creation of ‘fair earth share’ community scenarios. The outcome will be a set of footprinting tools to help guide future development decisions (Vale & Vale, 2009a). This paper will cover the project design, EF methodology, the community engagement process and the initial results of investigations.
Further details about the project are available on the Centre for Sustainable Practice website (http://tiny.cc/901pv).
Ella Lawton is the South Island Project Manager of the New Zealand Footprint Project. On behalf of the Centre for Sustainable Practice, Ella is leading the project’s South Island community engagement processes and facilitating the project partnerships. Ella is also responsible for the project design and footprint calculations as part of her PhD research, through Victoria University of Wellington. As a young emerging researcher Ella has a multi-disciplinary background with undergraduate degrees in laws and science (ecology) from the University of Otago, New Zealand and a ‘Masters in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability’ from Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden.