A ‘One Planet  Fair Share’ Community?

NZ Footprint Project: The Ecological   Footprint of Kiwi Lifestyles                         

and Urban Form

Ella Susanne LawtonRobert ValeBrenda Vale

Maggie Lawton

How will New Zealand cope in a future  world with increasingly scarce 

resources?

‘One Planet’

Urban Form

‘Fair Share’

Lifestyle

The Project

• WWF. (2008). Living Planet Report 2008. Switzerland: World Wildlife 

Foundation International.• Boisvert, A., Leung, P., Mackrael, K., Park, C., & Purcell, M. (2009). 

Planning Guide for Sustainability ‐

A Starter Guide (New Zealand). In L. 

Roberts & S. Henry (Eds.). Christchurch.

‘Fair Earth Share’

‘Fair share  ‘One Planet  Fair share’

Footprint  Footprint

Project Framework

NOW ‐ community 

and  individual 

footprints

‘One Planet  Fair share’

Footprint

Aim: Provide knowledge on how to lower the Ecological  Footprints that make up human living patterns, in order to 

guide policies and practices for robust future settlement  development.

Outcomes:

Tools for use by local communities

Community engagement and education

Long term community strategies towards sustainability

Three year initial FRST funding

Collaborative, engaging, purposeful – >4 communities

The Project

“[a] measure of how much productive land and water an individual, a city, a country, or

humanity requires to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates

Ecological Footprint:

Supply

Demand

Footprint BreakdownCategory Components

Food and Drink Food at home and eating out 

Travel Car, bus, train and air travel

Consumer 

GoodsClothes, computers , tvs, books, furniture, 

appliances

Holidays  Holidays at home and abroad

Energy Energy used in the home

Housing House building, maintenance and repairs

Infrastructure Motorways, bridges, railways, stadia

Government  Consumables and durables for local and 

central government

Services Water, phone, post, hospitals, education, 

finance, police etc

Household 

Footprint 

related to 

behaviour and 

lifestyles

Household 

Footprint 

related to the 

Household 

Environment

Collective 

Footprint 

related to local 

and central 

govt and 

services

(Collins, Flynn & Netherwood, 2005; Vale and Vale, 2009)

Welsh Case Study

“The challenge is for the people of Wales to lead happy, healthy, prosperous lives within their fair share of Earth’s resources.”

Drivers of Footprints

Results of community footprintsDense urbanUrbanUrban – ruralRural

8 Tribes profilingCaldwell, J., & Brown, C. (2007). 8 Tribes ‐

The 

Hidden Classes of New Zealand (First ed.).  Wellington: Wicked Little Books.

Footprint BreakdownCategory Components

Food and Drink Food at home and eating out 

Travel Car, bus, train and air travel

Consumer 

GoodsClothes, computers , tvs, books, furniture, 

appliances

Holidays  Holidays at home and abroad

Energy Energy used in the home

Housing House building, maintenance and repairs

Infrastructure Motorways, bridges, railways, stadia

Government  Consumables and durables for local and 

central government

Services Water, phone, post, hospitals, education, 

finance, police etc

Household 

Footprint 

related to 

behaviour and 

lifestyles

Household 

Footprint 

related to the 

Household 

Environment

Collective 

Footprint 

related to local 

and central 

govt and 

services(Collins, Flynn & Netherwood, 2005)

Your ‘Share’

Vale, R., & Vale, B. (2010). Your (Carbon?) Ration Book. 

Paper presented at the Sustainable Building 2010 (SB10). 

Retrieved from http://www.sb10presentations.co.nz/

Passenger Transport

Vale, R., & Vale, B. (2010). Your (Carbon?) Ration Book. 

Paper presented at the Sustainable Building 2010 (SB10). 

Retrieved from http://www.sb10presentations.co.nz/

Fair Share Wellington Travel

Vale, R., & Vale, B. (2010). Your (Carbon?) Ration Book. 

Paper presented at the Sustainable Building 2010 (SB10). 

Retrieved from http://www.sb10presentations.co.nz/

Discussion

EF Methodology limitations

Scenario Development

Use in local govt policy and planning

Community engagement

QUESTIONS? 

Ella Susanne Lawtonella.lawton@op.ac.n

z