Ecological Footprint case study - City of Port Phillip
The City of Port Phillip is a municipality located on the northern shore of Port Phillip Bay, south of the Melbourne Central Business District. The city is known for its variety of urban villages, cultural diversity, heritage buildings, recreational facilities, restaurants and entertainment venues.
Port Phillip is steadily pursuing a journey towards sustainability, looking to better understand the environmental effects of council decisions and the impacts of collective actions by the wider community.
The Sustainable Living at Home Program
In 2001 Port Phillip commenced the Sustainable Living at Home (SLAH) program, designed to create a more sustainable lifestyle and community for residents in the City of Port Phillip. SLAH offers participants sustainable lifestyle options in a fun, interactive and informative format to encourage community participation in sustainable living.
Over a six-month period participants attend an information session and five SLAHminars (seminars) based on the five SLAH environmental topics - water, waste, travel, energy and purchase wise. Participants may also choose to participate in a community project and attend an action day. Since 2001, there have been seven rounds of SLAH with over 450 households involved. In 2004 the fifth SLAH program boasts 183 participating households.
How is Ecological Footprint used?
The Home Ecological Footprint Calculator has been used by Port Phillip to measure the effectiveness of the SLAH program and to investigate the changes made in participating households. Each SLAH participant was asked to calculate the Ecological Footprint for his or her home at the beginning and end of the six-month program. Participants were offered an incentive, for example, their choice of a compost bin or worm farm, to encourage them to participate.
The program aimed to achieve the following sustainability objectives:
- 20 per cent reduction in water usage
- 50 per cent reduction in waste and
- 10 per cent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Results
In SLAH 6/7, 52 participants submitted their first Ecological Footprint and 28 participants submitted a second Ecological Footprint. The 28 residents that calculated their Ecological Footprint at the start and end of the program reduced their Ecological Footprint by 6 per cent from 910 hectares to 850 hectares.
Using the raw data (not the Ecological Footprint calculation), the residents achieved an overall change of 8 per cent towards more sustainable behaviour (note: this was calculated as an Ecological Footprint saving of 58.2 hectares or 6.4 per cent reduction). This is significant achievement in whole of Ecological Footprint terms.
Findings
The data indicates that the program achieves the highest outcomes in reducing the water use and waste generation of participants. The high public transport change has been achieved as many participants have shifted from not using public transport at all to using it from two to eight times per week.
Value of calculator or concept
The Ecological Footprint calculator has allowed Port Phillip to calculate participants overall impact on resources and also provides the opportunity to examine changes in water, gas, electricity, travel habits and waste generation. The calculator has assisted Port Phillip in assessing the success of the different educational elements of the program in bringing about behavioural change. This information will help when reviewing and revising the program. It has also assisted revising the sustainability objectives for current and future programs as follows:
- 15 per cent reduction in water usage
- 30 per cent reduction in waste and
- 10 per cent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Limitations of the calculator or concept
The major limitations the City of Port Phillip found with the Ecological Footprint was that some information about the Ecological Footprint concept needed to be provided with the calculator as the concept was not generally understood prior to the program.
