What you can do

1. Where does our ecological footprint come from?

   This is an example of how the UK’s impact breaks down
   

   

   Key:

   
   
   • Homes and energy are responsible for 27% of our Ecological Footprint. This includes gas and electricity consumption, and the building and maintenance of our homes.
     
     
   • Transport is 17% and is due to fuel consumption, car ownership and public transport.
     
     
   • Food and drink account for 23% - this includes food consumed at home or out at restaurants or other catering establishments.
     
     
   • Goods account for 14% - includes any products we purchase, including durable large household objects such as furniture and appliances and smaller products such as newspapers, clothing, and electronics.
     
     
   • Services account for 9% - includes any service that we consume such as recreation, financial, telephone, insurance, private schools and private medical care.
     
     
   • Government accounts for 7% - includes central and local government impacts, the NHS, schools, universities and social services.
     
     
   • Capital assets account for 4% - covers investment in capital assets such as factories, machinery, transport equipment, and other buildings and structures. This includes both the business sector and government.

   Source: BioRegional

2. How can you as an individual take action?

   You can help in four ways:

   • Become Aware. Become aware of how vital sustainability is for our World, today and in the future. Read up on the subject on links on this website and others. Join and support the many organizations promoting change.
     
     
   • Teach. Make others aware. Friends, families, colleagues, school friends and so on.
     
     
   • Act. Use the 10 principles of one planet living as a framework for a personal, project or organisational Sustainability Action Plan.

     For organisations:
     Download BioRegional’s One Planet Action Plan template (this can be adapted to create a project plan too) www.bioregional.com/organisationplan

     For individuals:
     UK residents can use BioRegional’s excellent on-line One Planet Calculator and Action Plan tool www.calculator.bioregional.com
     
     Overseas residents can download BioRegional’s One Planet Action Plan template www.bioregional.com/personalplan

   • Ask.  Ask, and if necessary demand, of your leaders, supermarkets, suppliers, utility companies, newspapers, and so on that they act on sustainability. That they reduce energy consumption, reduce waste, reduce carbon footprint, and give you choice. If you are a schoolchild, ask this of your parents. When enough voices make a point (peacefully), companies, corporations, and even governments are obliged to act………

The melting Greenland ice cap and its possible future implications on the World is our focus on the Emirates NBD Quest. But merely a focus. We ask every reader of this site to strive for a Green, and sustainable, land wherever you are from….

"...each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories...And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it
US President Barack Obama, inauguration speech (20 January 2009)