Industry Sector
Conservation
The Ecological Footprint
The Ecological Footprint is a phrase that is often heard but not always understood. It is an enormously useful way of understanding the health of our relationship with the planet we live on. But before the Ecological Footprint can be reduced, it needs to be simply explained.
Background:
The Ecological Footprint is an indicator that measures a nation’s impact on Earth and its natural systems, indicating whether a country and its people are living sustainably or harming the planet. It does this by comparing our consumption of natural resources with nature’s ability to renew those resources.
As a nation that has experienced rapid, extraordinary growth, the UAE has one of the highest Ecological Footprints in the world. This is exacerbated by the hot and dry climate which demands vast volumes of water desalination and air conditioning, as well as a very low level of natural resources.
To put it starkly, as a nation, we have been consuming more natural resources than the planet can naturally regenerate. This does not bode well for a sustainable future for the UAE nor is it a legacy we want to leave for future generations.
Low awareness of what exactly the Ecological Footprint means and how it works was proving detrimental to its useful employment. The Emirates Wildlife Society (EWS-WWF) recognised that creating an understanding of what an Ecological Footprint is and how it is calculated would help encourage people to become conscious of their consumption patterns and instigating behavioural change.
Objectives:
- Raise awareness of the UAE’s dangerously high Ecological Footprint
- Educate on what it is, how it works and how it is calculated
- Provide solutions for individuals to change their consumption
- Ultimately, change the behaviour of a nation, so every citizen makes some move towards helping to lighten the UAE’s Ecological Footprint until it reaches sustainability.
Our role:
- Development of the Ecological Footprint website, providing relevant educational information, engaging animations and tools and driving users to the Heroes of the UAE website for solutions to individuals and corporate.
- Development of an ongoing engagement strategy that will be launched shortly, with the aim of continuously pushing to the website and furthering the awareness drive.
To view the creative click here.
