Tuesday 24 February 2004

For the first time, it has been possible to map the flow of resources into and out of Scotland and to calculate the ecological footprint - the environmental impact - of Scotland's residents. The study collected detailed data on the use of energy, materials and water, on waste generated and transport used.

The research was commissioned by Viridis, and part-funded by the Scottish Executive and the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), with a grant from Biffaward, a multi-million pound environment fund which utilises landfill tax credits donated by Biffa Waste Services.

An ecological footprint is an estimate of the land and sea area needed to provide all the energy, water, transport, food and materials that we consume. The ecological footprint of Scotland's residents in 2001 was just over 27 million global hectares (gha), or 5.35 gha per person.

The 'big hitters' of the ecological footprint were materials and waste (accounting for 38 per cent) and food consumption (accounting for 29 per cent). Direct energy use accounted for 18 per cent.

Scotland's footprint is also compared with the footprints of other countries and regions. Scotland's footprint is the second smallest of the UK countries, behind Wales.

A range of scenarios was also developed, to show how the ecological footprint could be reduced through initiatives such as household waste reduction, improved energy efficiency and the increased use of public transport.

Under current projections for growth in waste to 2020, even if we meet all waste management targets (recycling, composting and diverting biodegradable waste from the landfill) the ecological footprint of waste would actually go up! Whereas if we meet the recycling and composting target of 25 per cent by 2006 and also achieve a zero growth in waste by 2010, as outlined in Scotland's National Waste Plan, launched last year, the waste footprint goes down and continues to drop as our recycling improves. On energy, the footprint scenario reveals that If we switch 40 per cent of electricity from brown grid to renewable electricity this alone would reduce our footprint by 10 per cent.

At the launch, Dr Richard Dixon, Head of Policy for WWF Scotland, said "For the first time we can now measure exactly how sustainable Scotland really is and see the scale of the challenge. For example, we are making good progress on recycling, but even if we meet our targets, we are running to catch up with the increasing growth of the waste mountain - we must get serious about producing less."

Other interesting findings from the study report reveal that in 2001:

• Scotland generated almost 15 million tonnes of waste. This is enough waste for each person in Scotland to fill one and half refuse bags every day of the year.


• On average, a Scottish resident consumes 540,000 litres of water every year. This is enough to fill half an Olympic swimming pool.


• On average, a Scottish resident consumes 624 kg of food every year. This is equivalent to almost nine times our body weight.


• Scotland's total energy consumption was 140,000 GWh. This is enough energy to run 950 million televisions for a year.