Washington family are “Footprinted” for film to be shown at North East environmental report launch
A Washington family have had their lives put under the ‘green microscope’ as part of a new report which looks at the environmental impacts of consumption and production in the North East.
Sarah Brown, a mother of two from Lambton, Washington, Sunderland, and her family have had their individual environmental Footprint analysed to coincide with the launch of the Ecological Budget North East – Counting Consumption report which is unveiled at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light on Friday May 26.
Sarah, her partner Geoff Wilkinson and sons Lewis Robson, 3 and Jack, 10 weeks, were filmed going about their daily activities and information about their lifestyle was data crunched to provide an individual Footprint for her and her family members. Her daily routines and explanation of how the footprint analysis works was edited into a short film, which will be shown at Friday’s launch event.
The family’s Footprint came out at 4.46 global hectares per capita, which equates to using resources equivalent to around the size of five football fields. They are below the North East Footprint average which stands at 5.31 global hectares per capita, but even these results mean that if everyone in the world consumed the same as Sarah and her family we would need almost 3 planets to sustain ourselves.
Sarah, who is currently training to be a teacher, said: “It was a real eye-opener taking part in the Footprint exercise. It really puts into focus how the actions you take everyday can make such an impact on the environment.
“Although our personal family Footprint was low, there are areas where we could do more to lower our Footprint even more. Home energy efficiency, more recycling and looking to use more seasonal foods for instance are things we will be looking to do more in the future to lessen our impacts.”
The family were quizzed on their eating habits, home energy consumption, recycling and their travel each week. Their use of one car and car sharing for a lot of their essential journeys, along with limited air travel (1 foreign trip a year) and living in a smaller energy efficient home helped to contribute significantly to their low Footprint.
The new report, Ecological Budget North East - Counting Consumption (1) , funded by Biffaward as part of their Programme on Sustainable Resource Use (2) , is the first complete set of comprehensive, reliable and current physical resource flow accounts to date. It is a significant step in understanding how the way the economy is managed and the decisions we make every day, directly affects the environment around us.
Eco-Budget includes Footprint analysis of all 23 local authorities including Sunderland and Easington, in the North East.
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