A recent report carried out by Herbert Girardet, Professor of Environmental Planning at Middlesex University, lists London's massive consumption of resources, among them: in one year the equivalent of 110 supertank loads of oil, 1.2 million tons of lumber, 1.2 millon tons of metal, 2 million tons each of food, plastics and paper, and 1 billion tons of water; in return the city's production of waste in a year includes 15 million tons of rubbish, 7.5 million tons of sewage and 60 million tons of carbon dioxide. In all, though London covers 400,000 acres it requires [an ecological footprint of] 50 million acres to provide it with resources and absorb its waste. Herbert Giradet puts it very clearly: "'Although [London] contains only 12 per cent of Britian's population, it requires an area equivalent to all the country's productive land to service it -- though this extends to the wheat prairies of Kansas, the tea gardens of Assam, the copper mines of Zambia and other far-glung places."

Key concepts and themes of education for sustainability

Ecological Sustainability	Social Sustainability	Ecomomic Sustainability	Political Sustainability
Biodiversity Habitat Carrying capacity Conservation Ecological footprint Ecology Ecospace Ecosystems Interspecies equity Natural cycles and systems	Basic human needs Cultural diversity Cultural heritage Human rights Intergenerational equity Participation Peace Risk Management Social justice	Cost-benefit analysis Economic development Eco-efficiency Life-cycle analysis< Natural capital Natural resource accounting Steady-state economy Sustainable consumption Sustainable production Triple bottom line	Citizenship Democracy Decision making Tolerance Power Respect Conflict Resolution

Europe provides many examples of progressive companies and businesses that have sought to reshape themselves in more environmentally sustainable ways. Although it is not always clear what motivates such companies (whether public relations, or genuine concern about the environment, or a mixture of both), they do represent positive examples of how companies can significantly reduce their ecological footprints. Many of the world's most environmentally friendly businesses have emerged in western and northern Europe, especially Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands. Important European exemplars include Electrolux, Scandic Hotels, IKEA, McDonald's, Novotex, and BMW, among others.

Table I shows the ecological footprint of an average Canadian, i.e. the amount of land required from nature to support each individual's present consumption. This adds up to over 4.8 hectares, or an area 220 metres long by 220 metres wide roughly comparable to three city blocks. ...

Table 1: the ecological footprint of the average Canadian, in hectares per capita.

	Energy	Built Env.	Agr. Land	Forest	Total
Food	0.4		0.9		1.3
Housing	0.5	0.1		1.0	1.6
Transport	1.0	0.1			1.1
Consumer Goods	0.6		0.2	0.2	1.0
Resources in Services	0.4
Total	2.9	0.2	1.1	0.6	0.8

Preliminary estimates suggest that in Canada the poorest 20 percent of the population have an average Ecological Footprint of less than three hectares while the richest 20 percent consume the ecological goods and services of over 12 hectares per capita.

For the first time the United States has the world's largest Ecological Footprint at 9.57 hectares (23.7 acres) per person - a sustainable Footprint would be 1.88 hectares (4.6 acres). At the other end of the scale, developing countries like Bangladesh and Mozambique have Footprints of 0.53 hectares (1.3 acres) per capita - just over 1/20th of the US Footprint. Humanities combined footprint represents an overeuse of the earth's natural resources by 15 percent.

2004 Ecological Footprint of Nations (global hectares per capita)
Partial listing

United States of America United Arab Emirates Canada New Zealand United Kingdom Russia Israel Japan	9.57 9.97 8.56 8.13 4.72 4.28 3.97 3.91		Netherlands Italy Argentina Chile Mexico Venezuela Brazil World	3.81 3.26 3.18 3.04 2.59 2.42 2.39 2.18		Thailand Jordan Peru Philippines Indonesia India Mozambique Bangladesh	1.41 1.39 1.26 1.11 0.98 0.76 0.56 0.50

~ 2004 Ecological Footprint of Nations

The Melbourne Principles for a Sustainable Community were tabled at the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development, August 2002, by the City of Melbourne, Australia, and endorse by civic leaders worldwide:

• Provide a long term vision for cities based on: sustainability; intergenerational, social, economic and political equity; and their individuality.
• Achieve long term economic and social security.
• Recognise the intrinsic value of biodiversity and natural ecosystems, and protect and restore them.
• Enable communities to minimise their ecological footprint.
• Build on the characteristics of ecosystems in the development and nurturing of healthy and sustainable cities.
• Recognise and build on the distinctive characteristics of cities, including their human and cultural values, history and natural systems.
• Empower people and foster participation.
• Expand and enable cooperative networks to work towards a common, sustainable future.
• Promote sustainable production and consumption, through appropriate use of environmentally sound technologies and effective demand management.
• Enable continual improvement, based on accountability, transparency and good governance.

In 2002 Redefining Progress - http://www.rprogress.org/ - investigated the ecological footprint of 146 nations. The ecological footprint is an innovative tool that measures the area of land required to produce the resources and absorb the waste needed to sustain an individual at a particular standard of living. Canada placed third in the world, with only the United States and the United Arab Emirates having larger footprints, that is, greater per capita impacts on the environment. The study estimates that each Canadian had an ecological footprint of 8.8 hectares. In other words, it takes 8.8 hectares of ecologically productive land to generate the resources and assimilate the wastes of the average Canadian. On a global basis, at today's population of 6.1 billion people, there are approximately 1.7 hectares of productive land available per person, or less than one-fifth of the amount used by Canadians.

In simplest of terms, the concept of sustainability refers to the need to improve the human condition while at the same time caring for and protecting the natural environment. This concept has economic, social and ecological parameters, which have been referred to in th[is] as "the three spheres of sustainability".

The principle of sustainable development extends from this general concept, and has six key themes embodied within it. These are: intergenerational equity; carrying capacity [ecological footprint]; social equity; prosperity; diversity; and individual and community health. These themes relate to all of the three spheres.