Calculate Your Ecological Footprint

Photo of produce store with a van driving on the street with valleys and buildings in the background

The statistics tell an alarming, but sadly familiar tale: we in the developed world are consuming far too much. The richest 20% of the world’s population account for a whopping 85%of global consumption, from energy to meat to cars and paper. Try Global Footprint Network’s online calculator to work out how much land area it takes to support your lifestyle.

Australia is no exception to this global stampede towards buying more, more and more. One recent study found that Australians annually throw away $10.5 billion dollars worth of goods and services they have barely used. By far the biggest component of this was discarded food, which including unfinished drinks, takeaway food. Fresh produce and leftovers, accounted for $5.3 billion dollars worth of wasted meals.

Overconsumption is a problem on many levels, not just are we running out of natural resources, our buying and eating patterns are also a major contributor to climate change and to the developed world’s growing obesity problems. In Australia, our individual carbon footprint is three times the global average, and the value of the food we waste alone is more than 10 times the amount we donate in overseas aid.

Concern about our disposable culture, and in particular the impact of plastics on our environment was what motivated BioPak to embark on a more sustainable solution to our packaging needs.

Founder Richard Fine said the more he learnt about the problems facing our planet, the more he realised changes were needed not just in the way we manufacture things like the packaging but also in our individual consumption habits.

“Most certainly, BioPak was founded with the intention of disrupting an industry that was ripe for change and a significant contributor to the degradation of the environment in the products it produced and the resources consumed,” he explained.

“But as BioPak has grown and evolved, so has my thinking regarding sustainability. I have realised that the problem does not necessarily lie with the products and materials, it has more to do with consumers understanding the environmental impacts of their choices. I feel it is our mission to demystify and expose the environmental impact of single-use disposable packaging.”

So next time you head to the shops or a restaurant, take a moment to reflect on what you really need, not just what the quickest and easiest option is. In this way, we can start changing the statistics by taking a small step towards a more sustainable way of living. As Mahatma Gandhi put it: “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change… We need not wait to see what others do.”

Try Global Footprint Network’s online calculator to work out how much land area it takes to support your lifestyle. The results are alarming, but there are always ways we can cut down our consumption rates.

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