Ecological Footprinting

Ecological footprints are an interesting individual exercise, but they can also be used as a platform for debating environmental issues. Sion Hill Dominican College, a school in south Dublin (Ireland), hosted such a project throughout 2007/8 through its development education group "Alive". Below, Alive describes their project:

The Project - what we did: 

We generated significant interest by putting up paintings of footprints, some with question marks, around the school.

We then followed this up by sticking up footprints containing questions or a challenge

We organized a word-hunt. We placed letters around the school which spelt out the ecological footprint website address www.myfootprint.org. Small prizes (such as a lollipop in the shape of a foot!) were given to those who could access information on that website.

We put up stencils with 4 key facts linked to the 7th Millennium Development Goal

We got each class to test and record their ecological footprint.

We organized a workshop with Tom Roche of Just Forests  looking at sustainable forestry

We planted a dozen trees on the school grounds

We organized a debate with a neighbouring school. The motion was 'Ending Poverty and Averting a Global Warming Disaster are Compatible'. We proposed the motion.

We worked with our Green School's Group in setting out a number of practical steps to help to make a small contribution in the fight to avert global warming.

We placed a number of relevant articles on our notice board - from local and national newspapers, the book 80:20 Development in an Unequal World, The New Internationalist magazine, information from the Stern Report on Climate Change, facts dealing with the EU 15 Greenhouse Gas Emissions