Chapter 5
Case Study – Findings
Abstract In this chapter, the results of the case study are presented. This chapter
considers the findings in light of the demographics of study participants and conveys
the follow-up interview data in addition to the results generated by the Footprint
Calculator. The findings reveal an Ecological Footprint of nearly 3.0 global hectares,
that is slightly greater than the national score of 2.7 global hectares based on the
2020 Edition of the Global Footprint Network’s National Footprint Accounts.
Consequently, the average Earth Overshoot Day was similar to the national result,
especially for 2020. There were very few cases where people in the corridor were
living within 1 Earth. On average, their lifestyle required closer to 2 Earths. Income
was found to covary strongly in a linear relationship with both the Ecological and
carbon Footprints. The latter (cF) and crop land were the most critical components,
although grazing land and fishing grounds showed the most variance. The consumption category with the highest average was food – it also had the highest standard
deviation among these categories. The main reasons for this will be taken up in the
next chapter (Chap. 6), along with the solutions from the outputs of the Footprint
Calculator. The towns in the corridor scored similarly on the Footprint Calculator,
although there were sizeable standard deviations in the responses.
Keywords Footprint Calculator · Ecological Footprint · Number of Earths · Global
hectares · Footprint components · Land types · carbon Footprint · Consumption
categories · Earth Overshoot Day
It should be noted at the onset of this chapter that the participation rate in this study
was extremely high. Very few households declined being part of the study because
they had either already participated in a study (e.g., the previous day) and did not
wish to partake in another survey or for no given reason. This makes for a participation rate exceeding 95% (for a total of 120 participating households). Only
producing households were included in this sample, so some of them could not
participate in the study, although they would otherwise have done so (and these were
excluded from the participation rate). People were very generous with their time,
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. J. Thornbush, The Ecological Footprint as a Sustainability Metric,
SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62666-2_5
67
Case Study – Findings
Abstract In this chapter, the results of the case study are presented. This chapter
considers the findings in light of the demographics of study participants and conveys
the follow-up interview data in addition to the results generated by the Footprint
Calculator. The findings reveal an Ecological Footprint of nearly 3.0 global hectares,
that is slightly greater than the national score of 2.7 global hectares based on the
2020 Edition of the Global Footprint Network’s National Footprint Accounts.
Consequently, the average Earth Overshoot Day was similar to the national result,
especially for 2020. There were very few cases where people in the corridor were
living within 1 Earth. On average, their lifestyle required closer to 2 Earths. Income
was found to covary strongly in a linear relationship with both the Ecological and
carbon Footprints. The latter (cF) and crop land were the most critical components,
although grazing land and fishing grounds showed the most variance. The consumption category with the highest average was food – it also had the highest standard
deviation among these categories. The main reasons for this will be taken up in the
next chapter (Chap. 6), along with the solutions from the outputs of the Footprint
Calculator. The towns in the corridor scored similarly on the Footprint Calculator,
although there were sizeable standard deviations in the responses.
Keywords Footprint Calculator · Ecological Footprint · Number of Earths · Global
hectares · Footprint components · Land types · carbon Footprint · Consumption
categories · Earth Overshoot Day
It should be noted at the onset of this chapter that the participation rate in this study
was extremely high. Very few households declined being part of the study because
they had either already participated in a study (e.g., the previous day) and did not
wish to partake in another survey or for no given reason. This makes for a participation rate exceeding 95% (for a total of 120 participating households). Only
producing households were included in this sample, so some of them could not
participate in the study, although they would otherwise have done so (and these were
excluded from the participation rate). People were very generous with their time,
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. J. Thornbush, The Ecological Footprint as a Sustainability Metric,
SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62666-2_5
67