1. Ecological Footprint
Ms. Levasseur
Biology

2. Prediction
How many Earths would be needed if everyone on this planet had your standard of living?
Write:
I think the number of planets to maintain my lifestyle would be _______ Earths.
The amount of land that is needed to supply my lifestyle is ________ acres (football fields.)

3. Water
Bathing:
Do you shower every day? Yes – add 5 for every 5 minutes you shower
Do you shower twice a week? Yes – add 2
Do you take a bath every day? Yes – add 14
Do you take a bath twice a week? Yes – add 3
Laundry:
Add 1 for every load of laundry you do on a weekly basis.
Total water score ­­_____________

4. Food
Shopping:
Does your family mostly buy locally grown products from farmer’s markets? Add 2
Does your family get most of your food from a grocery store (Whole Foods, King Soopers…)? Add 15
Lifestyle:
Do you eat meat with every meal? Add 100
Do you eat meat with most meals? Add 75
Are you a vegetarian or vegan? Add 30
Total Food score _____________

5. Housing: Do you live in an apartment or condominium? Add 10
Do you live in a single story house? Add 20
Do you live in a two or three story house? Add 30
Total Housing score _____________

6. Travel
Where did you go?
Did you stay in Colorado this past year? Add 5
Did you fly or drive to a different state? Add 10 for each round trip
Did you fly to Canada or South America? Add 15 for each round trip
Did you fly to Europe? Add 25 for each round trip
Did you fly to Africa? Add 70 for each round trip
Did you fly to Australia or Asia? Add 120 for each round trip
Total Travel score ______________

7. Heating
The heat that keeps your house warm probably comes from burning fuel (natural gas, coal, propane, wood) which releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. To soak up this greenhouse gas, trees will need to be planted which uses up more land.
Add 45 to your heating score unless your house is completely solar/wind/geothermally heated.
Do you turn down the thermostat at night? Subtract 10
Do you turn down the thermostat when you are not at home? Subtract 10
Total Heating score ______________

8. Electricity
Generating electricity releases carbon dioxide into the air.
Add 35 unless ALL the electricity in your house comes from renewable resources. In that case, only add 2.
Do you always switch off lights when you are done in a room? Subtract 10
Do you use CFL light bulbs (the curly bulbs)? Subtract 7
Do you leave computers and other electronic devices on standby? Add 10
Total Electricity score ___________

9. Daily Travel Total Daily Travel score __________
How do you get to school?
Do you walk or ride your bike to and from school? Add 1
Do you ride a bus to and from school? Add 25
Do you ride in a car to and from school? Add 40
(If you get a ride one way and walk the other, divide each number in half then add them together.)
Total Daily Travel score __________

10. Paper Books: Do you buy them? Add 2 Borrow/check them out? Add 0
Half and half? Add 1
Newspaper:
Do you have a subscription? – Add 10
Do you recycle the paper? Subtract 5
Magazines:
Do you have any subscriptions? – add 10 for EACH magazine
Do you recycle them? Subtract 5 for each one
Total Paper score __________

11. Waste To dispose of waste, you use up valuable land.
Add 100 to your score.
Does your household compost? Subtract 10
Does your household recycle metal? Subtract 10
Does your household recycle plastic? Subtract 10
Does your household recycle glass? Subtract 5
Total Waste score ___________

12. Total your score for all the sections
Many city amenities that you use every day, from roads to shops to buildings, make their own demand on the environment. People who consume more tend to rely more on these amenities.
Take this into account and DOUBLE your score if you live in the city.

13. How much land does it take to support your lifestyle?
Divide your score by 100 to calculate the amount of square hectares in your ecological footprint.
What is your Hectare Total: 
There are 14.8 billion hectares on Earth
(A hectare is a metric unit of area equal to 10,000 square meters or about 2.47 acres)

14. How many acres of land will be needed to sustain your lifestyle?
There are about 7 billion people on earth.
Multiply your number of hectares by 7
Move your decimal 9 spaces to the right, adding zeros to get your number to billions.
This is how many hectares it would take to sustain life if everyone lived like you.

15. How many Earths will you need to sustain your lifestyle?
There are 36.8 billion acres of land on Earth; each hectare is about 2.47 acres.
Multiply your number of hectares (before you added the zeros) by 2.47.
Move your decimal 9 spaces to the right, adding zeros to get your total in billions.
This is the number of Earths it would take to maintain your lifestyle.