Ecological Footprinting with Mathis Wackernagel, PhD, Executive Director of the Global Ecological Footprint Network

Mathis is co-creator of the Ecological Footprint and has worked on sustainability issues for organizations in Europe, Latin America, North America, Asia and Australia, and has lectured for community groups, governments, and their agencies, NGOs, and academic audiences at more than 100 universities around the world. Mathis previously served as the director of the Sustainability Program at Redefining Progress in Oakland, California, and directed the Centre for Sustainability Studies/Centro de Estudios para la Sustentabilidad in Mexico, which he still advises. He is also an adjunct faculty at SAGE at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Mathis has authored or contributed to over 50 peer-reviewed papers, numerous articles and reports and various books on sustainability that focus on the question of embracing limits and developing metrics for sustainability, including Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on Earth; Sharing Nature's Interest; and WWF International's Living Planet Report. After earning a degree in mechanical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, he completed his Ph.D. in community and regional planning at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. There, as his doctoral dissertation with Professor William Rees, he created the Ecological Footprint concept. Mathis' awards include an honorary doctorate from the University of Berne in 2007, a 2007 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, a 2006 WWF Award for Conservation Merit and the 2005 Herman Daly Award of the U.S. Society for Ecological Economics.

The session will provide an introduction to the Ecological Footprint is a science-based tool that tracks both the planet's available ecological resources and human demand on those resources. By measuring the amount of nature we have versus the amount we use, the Footprint 1) reveals Earth's ecological limits; 2) communicates the risk of boundless resource consumption; and 3) facilitates the sustainable management and preservation of Earth's natural resources for the well-being of humankind. Over the past several years it has emerged as a leading sustainability indicator.

More about the Global Ecological Footprint Network: http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/

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