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The supply of water, food, and energy in our global economy is highly interlinked. Virtual blue water embedded into internationally traded food crops has therefore been extensively researched in recent years. This study focuses on the often neglected energy needed to supply this blue irrigation water. It provides a globally applicable and spatially explicit approach to the watershed level for water source specific quantification of energy consumption and related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of irrigation water supply. The approach is applied to Israel's total domestic and imported food crop supply of 105 crops by additionally including import-related transportation energy and emissions. Total energy use and related emissions of domestic crop production were much lower (551 GWh/422 kt CO 2-equivalents [CO 2e]) than those embedded into crop imports (1639 GWh/649 kt CO 2e). Domestic energy and emissions were mainly attributable to the irrigation water supply with artificial water sources (treated domestic wastewater and desalinated water, 84%). Transport accounted for 79% and 66% of virtually imported energy and emissions, respectively. Despite transport, specific GHG emissions (CO 2e per ton of crop) were significantly lower for several crops (e.g., olives, almonds, chickpeas) compared to domestic production. This could be attributed to the high share of energy-intensive artificial water supply in combination with higher irrigation water demands in Israel. In the course of an increasing demand for artificial water supply in arid and semi-arid regions, our findings point to the importance of including “energy for water” into comparative environmental assessment of crop supply to support decision-making related to the water–energy–food nexus.

Despite a growing number of national-scale ecosystem service (ES) assessments, few studies consider the impacts of ES use and consumption beyond national or regional boundaries. Interregional ES flows ecosystem services imported from and exported to other countries are rarely analyzed and their importance for global sustainability is little known. Here, we provide a first multi-ES quantification of a nation's use of ES from abroad. We focus on ES flows that benefit the population in Germany but are supplied outside German territory. We employ a conceptual framework recently developed to systematically quantify interregional ES flows. We address four types of interregional ES flows with: (i) biophysical flows of traded goods: cocoa import for consumption; (ii) flows mediated by migratory species: migration of birds providing pest control; (iii) passive biophysical flows: flood control along transboundary watersheds; and (iv) information flows: China's giant panda loan to the Berlin Zoo. We determined that: (i) Ivory Coast and Ghana alone supply around 53% of Germany's cocoa while major negative consequences for biodiversity occurred in Cameroon and Ecuador; (ii) Africa´s humid and sub-humid climate zones are important habitats for the majority of migratory bird species that provide natural pest control services in agricultural areas in Germany; (iii) Upstream watersheds outside the country add an additional 64% flood regulation services nationally, while Germany exports 40% of flood regulation services in neighboring, downstream countries; (iv) Information flows transported by the pandas were mainly related to political aspects and - contrary to our expectations - considerably less on biological and natural aspects. We discuss the implications of these results for international resource management policy and governance. (c) 2020 The Authors Thomas Kastner was supported by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF), project no. ESR17-014. Laura Lopez-Hoffman acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF) awards DEB-1118975 and DEB-1518359. Support for Liu's time was provided by US National Science Foundation and Michigan AgBioResearch. Javier Martínez-López acknowledges the support of the Spanish Government through María de Maeztu excellence accreditation 2018-2021 (Ref. MDM-2017-0714). Sarah Wolff was supported by the European Research Council grant GLOLAND (grant no. 311819)

Ecosystem services (ES) assessments commonly focus on a specific biophysical region or nation and take its geographic borders as the system boundary. Most geographical regions are, however, not closed systems but are open and telecoupled with other regions, such that the use of ES in one location is dependent on ecosystem processes and ecological management in other locations. Interregional ES flows often affect national economies and may trigger issues of national security and global equity. To date, however, methodologies for assessing interregional flows of ES have been published in dispersed literature. This paper provides a three-step guidance for how to assess four different types of interregional ES flows (traded goods, passive biophysical flows, species migration and dispersal as well as information flows). This guidance is intended to complement national and regional ecosystem assessments. The three steps are to (i) define the goal and scope of interregional ES flow assessments, (ii) quantify the interregional ES flows using a tiered approach and (iii) interpret results in terms of uncertainties, consequences and governance options. We compile different indicators for assessing interregional ES flows and evaluate their suitability for national and regional ES assessments. Finally, to assess the implications of interregional ES flows for environmental sustainability and human well-being, we relate our flow indicators to the Sustainable Development Goals. This guidance towards systematic assessment of interregional ES flows provides a first step to measure and quantify externalised environmental costs and can contribute to the development of indicators to address interregional imbalances in trade, foreign policy and beyond.

The research presented in this paper embraces a biophysical, materials flow analysis approach, to quantify various direct and indirect environmental interactions of bell peppers grown in the Israeli Arava desert region. The study examines the material flows of one metric ton of bell peppers grown in two types of structures, greenhouses and net-houses, throughout its life-cycle, from “cradle to port” (at key export destinations). It examines materials, land, water and energy inputs, and solid waste and GHG emissions through three stages (1) pre-cultivation including the production of raw materials; (2) cultivation and packaging; (3) post-cultivation, including shipping and waste management. The research found that while there were small differences between the structures themselves, there were major differences between the production-stages. On average, the production of 1 ton of bell peppers in the region (average of the two structures) uses 691kg of materials, an area of 131 m2, and 280m3of water. It generates an average of 712 kg solid waste and 1156 kg CO2e. Overall, 21% (205kg) of the materials were used during the pre-cultivation stage, 67% (643 kg) during cultivation and 12% (118 kg) during the post-cultivation stage. The highest CO2e emissions component of both growing systems is related to the pre-cultivation stage, i.e., production of raw materials (approximately 45%), followed by the cultivation stage (about 38%) and post-cultivation, mainly transportation (17%). The analysis identified the biophysical strengths and weaknesses of each phase, it also indicates possible alternatives for reducing environmental impact, including implementation of select technologies, and points out the influence of societal-communal and economic characteristics and the need for greater investment in the role of public policy.

Cities supply their material needs from various sources, located not only in their nearby region, but also from other places around the world. Consequently, they have significant environmental impact in those areas. ‘Urban metabolism’ is a leading research approach, which advances urban analysis by attempting to quantify the amount of materials and energy that flow through a city. In recent years, this tool has been used widely, but there have been no prior metabolism studies that attempt to locate and quantify the resources and waste flows to and from a city on the local, regional and global scales. The goal of this paper is to present such an approach to urban metabolism, as a means to advance urban sustainability. The manuscript focuses on the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel. It analyzes the overall urban metabolism and identifies the routes followed by the material supplies used by the city and its environmental impact on several spatial scales – local, regional and global. Overall the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa relies on direct and indirect use of approximately 3600 kt of materials a year out of which approximately 47% are imported. Furthermore, 99% of the city related waste is outside Israel and only small portion remains at the regional level and within the city.

Modeling and measuring both potential and actual urban greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigations can serve as a foundation for urban sustainability management. A growing number of studies have analyzed various aspects of GHG emissions from the use of private vehicles, emphasizing the significant share they represent of overall emissions, and also exploring measures to reduce these emissions. Commuting to and from work is a significant form of urban travel. Most existing analyses have focused on urban transportation-related emissions at the overall urban scale. Much less research has been published concerning fine-scale emissions analysis of urban commute patterns and specific commuting routes. This manuscript presents a detailed analysis of commute related GHG emissions from private vehicles used by the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa (Israel) residents. The analysis found that 60% of the overall urban private vehicles related emissions can be attributed to commuting, emitting ~215,000 t CO2e annually. We analyzed GHG emissions related to 257 inter-city and 64 commute routes within the city, ranging between 100 and 5600 t CO2e annually. Potential scenarios for GHG mitigation are also presented showing that relatively mild technological, behavioral and policy changes can potentially save 10–51% of emissions related to commute within the city, amounting to 3000–17,000 t CO2e annually. Findings show that commute-route-specific carbon quantification can be used as a tool for socio-spatial tailored policies, advancing urban GHG mitigation.

Most consumption activities are related, at least to some degree, to households. A nalyzing households' metabolism - the direct and indirect materials and energy flows and its byproducts - and identifying key shaping factors of that metabolism can serve as the foundation for examining various measures for environmental management. Recent research reviews emphasized several important issues, limitations of existing metabolism studies, that need to be considered and overcome as part of the further development of households' metabolism analysis including: methods, focus, scale, analysis, and potential environmental management implementation. This article aims contributing to the growing household metabolism scientific literature by illustrating directions to advance some of the identified issues and limitations. It focuses on the Israeli household sector as a case study. Following the identified limitations, the analysis includes the flow of materials, water, land and selected byproducts including greenhouse gases and air pollutants. It integrates the analysis of specific households metabolism components (food, electricity and transportation related materials) with the national scale. It explores the contribution of specific factors (e.g., income, household size) and various lifestyles (e.g., young or old low-income couples, large wealthy mature households) with demographic factors of the overall population (e.g., the share of households consisting of a young couple or elderly people in the overall national household metabolism). Such integration can contribute to advancing measures relevant to specific socio-economic factors and lifestyles and can contribute to changing the metabolism and advancing the use of this important research approach as a mean for advancing sustainability.

We examine the prevalent issue of political, economic, social and cultural conditions of Indigenous groups in Western states as spatial constraints when they choose to stay put in their birthplace, even under conditions of environmental hazard. These constraints are imposed upon them by the government, the enveloping dominant culture and their own internal cultural codes and social structure. These issues are examined among two unrecognized Bedouin villages in Israel susceptible to industrial environmental hazards. The various spatial constraints are interpreted as spatial bars that become thicker under the environmental hazard. In conceptualizing this unique situation, we propose the concept of confining space that dwells within the wider conceptualizations of production of space and time.

Recent decades have witnessed a growing interest in the conservation of electricity of the household sector as consumption rates grow constantly worldwide. To date, consumption based studies have either focused on households' overall use of electricity at the national or specific group level, or analyzed specific socio-spatial consumption shaping factors. Studies that followed the first approach can signal the magnitude of electricity consumption, analyze trends and explore the contribution of advancing various measures. Studies that followed the latter approach can be used as a base for advancing consumption behavioral changes based on specific circumstances. This manuscript integrates both approaches for the case of the state of Israel, it therefore allows examining the effect of different variables on electricity consumption of the entire population. The manuscript presents an analysis of electricity consumption of 30,000 households. By quantifying the overall use of electricity by households influenced by different socio-spatial shaping factors, the manuscript identifies the share of specific types of households and various lifestyles (e.g., young families, wealthy households) out of the overall national use of electricity. Such analysis can then support policy measures by aiming to the socio-spatial characteristics of specific types of households, which can contribute the most to advancing the overall national energy efficiency efforts and can also identify future scenarios of household electricity demand which can then be addressed in the future.

Conserving and managing global natural capital requires an understanding of the complexity of flows ofecosystem services across geographic boundaries. Failing to understand and to incorporate these flowsinto national and international ecosystem assessments leads to incomplete and potentially skewed conclusions,impairing society’s ability to identify sustainable management and policy choices. In this paper,we synthesise existing knowledge and develop a conceptual framework for analysing interregionalecosystem service flows. We synthesise the types of such flows, the characteristics of sending and receivingsocio-ecological systems, and the impacts of ecosystem service flows on interregional sustainability.Using four cases (trade of certified coffee, migration of northern pintails, flood protection in the Danubewatershed, and information on giant pandas), we test the conceptual framework and show how anenhanced understanding of interregional telecouplings in socio-ecological systems can inform ecosystemservice-based decision making and governance with respect to sustainability goals.&nbsp

The need to promote energy conservation measures in residential buildings has been widely acknowledged. However, policies supporting such measures may be inadequate unless they recognize and address the effect of individuals and households lifestyle on energy consumption. This study compares two clustering approaches to segmenting a population by lifestyle using hierarchical cluster analysis: electricity use behavior (EUB) and household characteristics (HCH). The method was demonstrated in the dry Mediterranean city of Beer Sheva, Israel. The HCH approach appeared better than EUB at classifying households into distinct sub-groups of similar size, with significantly distinct annual electricity consumption. The results demonstrate the importance of selecting appropriate criteria for analysis, as they impact the identification of clusters and the policies that could be drafted based upon such research in the general case.

Advancing urban sustainability requires an implementation of various measures such as environmental policy, behavioral change, and technological developments, which have to be taken at various spatial scales. However, choosing the right measures demands considering their potential contribution in reducing the environmental impact and advancing urban sustainability. In recent years, some attempts to assess the contribution of implementing various measures have been advanced by various researchers focusing on different components of urban environmental interactions. While these studies make a significant contribution towards the understanding of the impact of various measures taken for a specific environmental issue, they mostly ignore the diversity and complexity of the urban interface with the environment at different spatial scales, as well as the ecological economics perspective, which approaches the city as a system. This paper uses the UBSI index published recently in this journal, to evaluate the urban biophysical sustainability of the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa (Israel) in 2014. Based on this data, future scenarios are developed, which examine the potential contribution of various policy measures and different technological processes to the city's sustainability. This examination is conducted while considering population growth and changes of consumption patterns as they are expected to occur until 2030.

Maintaining food security and environmental integrity over time requires a transition towards sustainable food systems. This paper analyzes different dimensions of national food supply sustainability on a global scale. By focusing on four food staples: wheat, rice, maize, and soybeans, the analysis identifies production regions that are more or less environmentally sustainable. It explores the dependence of different countries on calories supplied by these regions. These four staples' production requires 648 million hectares of cropland and about 559 cubic kilometers of irrigation water. It also leads to several environmental impacts, including potential soil loss and species loss. Yet, these impacts and pressures are spread unevenly across agricultural systems. We find that over one-third of the global calorie intake originates from regions with a high per ton environmental impacts. Although most consumed calories are from domestic sources, traded calories mostly originate from environmentally suitable production regions, increasing importing countries' food supply sustainability. This analysis also reveals interregional tradeoffs, where food imports into one region (increased food provision) is associated with high environmental impact in production regions. Further, this typology allows identifying an elusive, often overlooked interregional connection. That is the potential loss of future ecosystem service flow from countries with the lower gross domestic product per capita and high biodiversity. To date, those countries rely primarily on domestic staple production, which puts pressure on vulnerable local ecosystems. Species loss in those regions reduces the potential future interregional flows of genetic material. Alternatively, conservation combined with food imports can maintain diversity and the potential flow of genetic material from those regions. The functional regions typology provides a complete assessment of the interregional connections that make up the global food system. Therefore, it is useful for informing policy analysts and policymakers of a broader collection of stakeholders regarding the local environment. It also provides essential information about the suitability of different policy mechanisms to govern interregional systems. Future research shall expand the functional regions' typology to include additional environmental and human-related (e.g., technological), to cover more crops, and to account for other food categories, such as meat.

In an urban world human well-being and global sustainability are connected to cities and the way they function. However, the ability and political willingness of local authorities and urbanites to take action to significantly reduce urban negative biophysical impacts is limited. This manuscript presents the results of a research which aimed to examine the extent to which existing and potential measures within and outside urban boundaries can reduce the urban ecological footprint and advance urban sustainability. It focuses on the town of Ra'anana, Israel, as a case study examined over a decade. It identifies the contribution of different urban activities (e.g., transportation, food consumption etc.) and stakeholders (e.g., urban residents, municipality, the state etc.) to the changes of the urban footprint over time. It then examines the potential contributions of selected measures (e.g., plans, technology implementation, behavioral change, etc.) within and outside the town's boundaries to minimize the urban footprint. The research joins a small group of studies that have examined urban footprints over time and an even smaller number that tried to examine the potential footprint reductions from sustainability actions taken at different spatial scales.

The need to advance bio-physical accounting as a base for sustainability assessment has been acknowledged and advanced in recent years. One approach highly relevant to the 21st century global reality is the ‘Footprint’—Ecological, Land, Water and Carbon. While each has merits and limitations, the potential to bring all together under the title of the ‘Footprint Family’ is emerging. This paper embraces a footprint family approach to analyze beef consumption in the state of Israel over a decade (1999–2010) and explore some tradeoffs between different biophysical components. The research results reveal that on average a tonne of beef consumed in Israel, reflecting a mixture of sources of supply from all over the world requires 9.5 ha of land and 10,000 m 3 of water, mostly for grazing in Latin America (in Brazil and Argentina) but also for growing feed in the U.S and the E.U. Enteric fermentation, manure management, farm operations, shipping and slaughtering generate approximately 19.7 t of CO 2 e and the above can be integrated into an ecological footprint figure of approximately 6 global hectares. The paper also demonstrates the utility of inter-regional biophysical accounting at the detailed commodity level. Inter-regional accounting identifies the geographic locations that contribute resources to, and are affected by, the production of specific consumption products. Comprehensive interregional biophysical accounting can be used to generate a better understanding of the complex ecological impacts associated with most consumption products, and the implications of the relationship between these impacts for sustainability.

An ecological economics perspective on urban sustainability embraces a biophysical view which emphasizes the dependence of cities on vast quantities of natural capital from various sources and spatial scales, and the generation of urban wastes which impact the local, regional and global systems. In recent years, several sets of urban sustainability indicators and indices have been developed. However, only a few consider the complex multi-scale interactions between the urban activities and the environment. Furthermore, most existing indices use a relative evaluation approach instead of an absolute approach that is needed when dealing with ecological thresholds. The paper introduces a new urban biophysical sustainability index whose framework includes: the city environmental quality, use of natural resources, and GHG emissions. Each contains topics for assessment related to local, regional and global scales and associated indicators. Standard and optimum values were determined for each indicator and a formula is provided for grading each indicator measurement. The integration of those grades allows for generation of a compound score of each topic, category, spatial scale and the entire urban biophysical sustainability performance. It then demonstrates the index in three major Israeli cities.

Urban environmental quality indices can provide policy makers and the public with valuable information. However, common assessment tools have several shortcomings: most indices do leave out some important components of the state of urban environmental quality; they use a relative assessment in which urban environmental performance is evaluated relative to other cities, not against established environmental benchmarks; and only a few assessment tools compare urban performance to environmental quality standards. This paper presents a new multi component urban performance (EMCUP) index aiming to tackle those shortcomings. It analyses the overall state of urban environmental quality by using a list of indicators to evaluate key urban environmental quality topics such as air, water, open space, sanitation and solid waste. It presents an absolute score calculated in relation to both the standard and desired optimum levels. The use of the index is demonstrated by three Israeli cities.

The IPAT equation developed in the early 1970s by Ehrlich and Holdren suggests that the impact (I) of society on the environment is associated with population size (P) coupled with manner of function (f), which is shaped by elements such as affluence (A) and available technology (T). To date, most studies that have used the IPAT framework have either focused on its conceptual idea or employed it quantitatively at national and international scales. Few studies have explored the sub-national/regional scale, and none have focused on the local/community scale. This paper employs the IPAT framework for the case of Israel’s urban indigenous Bedouin society of the Negev. The paper aims to highlight IPAT’s strength in analyzing the array of internal and external factors that contribute to the making of an environmental crisis in Bedouin towns; a crisis with dire effects on public health and residents’ quality-of-life. The paper describes the current environmental situation and identifies major policy interventions and actions taken by government ministries and civil organizations. It introduces a revised and extended IPAT theoretical equation [including such elements as behavior (B), social communality (Sc) and Governmental policy (Po)] as an analytical framework for various factors associated with the Bedouin urban environmental crisis. Finally, the paper suggests new directions for intervention based on addressing the different factors contained within the human–environment impact equation.

As the world urbanizes, the role of cities in determining sustainability outcomes grows in importance. Cities are the dominant form of human habitat, and most of the world's resources are either directly or indirectly consumed in cities. Sustainable city analysis and management requires understanding the demands a city places on a wider geographical area and its ecological resource base. We present a detailed, integrated urban metabolism of residential consumption and ecological footprint analysis of the Vancouver metropolitan region for the year 2006. Our overall goal is to demonstrate the application of a bottom-up ecological footprint analysis using an urban metabolism framework at a metropolitan, regional scale. Our specific objectives are: a) to quantify energy and material consumption using locally generated data and b) to relate these data to global ecological carrying capacity. Although water is the largest material flow through Metro Vancouver (424,860,000 m(3)), it has the smallest ecological footprint (23,100 gha). Food (2,636,850 tonnes) contributes the largest component to the ecological footprint (4,514,400 gha) which includes crop and grazing land as well as carbon sinks required to sequester emissions from food production and distribution. Transportation fuels (3,339,000 m(3)) associated with motor vehicle operation and passenger air travel comprises the second largest material flow through the region and the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions (7,577,000 tonnes). Transportation also accounts for the second largest component of the EF (2,323,200 gha). Buildings account for the largest electricity flow (17,515,150 MWh) and constitute the third largest component of the EF (1,779,240 gha). Consumables (2,400,000 tonnes) comprise the fourth largest component of the EF (1,414,440 gha). Metro Vancouver's total Ecological Footprint in 2006 was 10,071,670 gha, an area approximately 36 times larger than the region itself. The EFA reveals that cropland and carbon sinks (forested land required to sequester carbon dioxide emissions) account for 90% of Metro Vancouver's overall demand for biocapacity. The per capita ecological footprint is 4.76 gha, nearly three times the per capita global supply of biocapacity. Note that this value excludes national government services that operate outside the region and could account for up to an additional 2 gha/ca.

Although many cities are engaged in efforts to calculate and reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, most are accounting for “scope one” emissions i.e., GHGs produced within urban boundaries (for example, following the protocol of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives). Cities should also account for the emissions associated with goods, services and materials consumed within their boundaries, “scope three” emissions. The emissions related to urban consumption patterns and choices greatly influence overall emissions that can be associated with an urban area. However, data constraints and GHG accounting complexity present challenges. In this paper we propose one approach that cities can take to measure the GHG emissions of their material consumption: the solid waste life cycle assessment (LCA) based approach. We used this approach to identify a set of materials commonly consumed within cities, and reviewed published life cycle assessment data to determine the GHG emissions associated with production of each. Our review reveals that among fourteen commonly consumed materials, textiles and aluminum are associated with the highest GHG emissions per tonne of production. Paper and plastics have relatively lower production emissions, but a potentially higher impact on overall emissions owing to their large proportions, by weight, in the consumption stream.

In recent years increasing number of social and environmental signals have raised a discussion on issues of food security, exploring the extent to which the current prevailing food system is sustainable. It follows that the development of food sustainability indicators is essential. One such indicator is Ecological Footprint Analysis. This paper presents and analyses four approaches for ecological footprint calculation – a conventional global hectare approach, a domestic versus international approach, a place-oriented approach, and a place-oriented global hectares approach, and examine each for the case of Canada. The research documented food consumption, major sources of supply, and land and energy inputs required to supply Canadians with a wide variety of food products over a year. Overall the research reveals an agricultural and food footprint at a range of 63,312,000–64,600,000 gha or the average equivalent of 2.0 gha per capita, integrating agricultural land (1.46 gha per capita) and energy land (0.54 gha per capita). It then highlights unique merits and shortcomings of each approach; argue that integrating all can generate a better, more comprehensive, indicator of sustainability which can support sustainable resource supply management, and a guide for individuals food and dietary choices.

One way in which institutions can implement the idea of sustainability is through the use of ecological indicators that will characterize the current situation and help determine where to focus efforts in order to achieve the goal of sustainability. The use of the ‘Ecological Footprint Analysis’ (EFA) represents an innovative attitude to calculate the load that an institution imposes on the natural environment. The goal of this study is to illustrate the benefits of using EFA at the institution scale. Our case study is the ecological footprint of one high school in the city of Haifa, Israel. We present a unique method integrating between institutional and individuals’ sourced data concerning consumption patterns at the institutional level. We then present the breakdown of the school footprint into four main components: electricity, transportation, food and materials. The results of our research reveal an overall footprint of 314 global hectares (gha), from which food and electric power are the main components followed by materials and transportation. Based on the results, we developed scenarios for potential future reduction of the high school ecological footprint.

The role of the Ecological Footprint Analysis (EFA) as a sustainability indicator has been widely acknowledged. One of EFA's strengths is its ability to communicate effectively the notion that any society depends on ecological goods and services beyond its local bio-capacity, and that we depend on the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems which might be on the other side of the world. This paper analyses three approaches of calculating a commodity footprint - a conventional global hectare approach, a domestic versus international approach, and a place oriented approach. We then discuss a fourth approach – a place oriented global hectares approach – which integrates elements from the other approaches. Our case study is Israel's wheat supply footprint during the last two decades. Documenting the EF along two decades allows us to identify patterns and analyse several specific factors which shape the size of the footprint following each approach. We highlight each approach unique merits and shortcomings; argue that integrating all can generate a better, more comprehensive indicator of sustainability which can support sustainable resource supply management.

This paper develops a theoretical interregional approach to sustainability in an interconnected world. We make the case that achieving sustainability – living equitably within the limits of living systems – requires the recognition of our ecological interdependence and interconnectedness across regions and the resultant need for supra-regional policy to shape local resilience and global sustainability. Approaching sustainability conscious of interregional connections reveals that: (1) virtually every significant human population or country lives, in part, on energy/material flows to and from distant places elsewhere around the world, (2) production, consumption and policy decisions in any given locale have the potential to create unseen unsustainable burdens on connected productive ecosystems in distant locales, (3) ecological change in one region has the potential to jeopardize the sustainability of other regions, and (4) society in almost any region has interests in sustaining the vitality of ecosystems in other regions. We highlight a range of supra-regional ecological linkages and discuss the types of interregional feedback and policy responses needed. We highlight how such an quasi-global focus not only provides further insight into the social and ecological challenges global society is facing, but also reveals places for positive human intervention and leadership in the name of sustainability and resilience.

In today's world, any nation's ecological footprint is spread all over the globe. Still, most footprint studies are not yet sensitive to the specific locations on which the footprint falls and to the unique production characteristics of each supporting region. In recent years some studies have acknowledged the need to quantify the ‘real land’ footprints and particularly the share of the footprint embodied in trade. Our goal is to analyse the ecological footprint of grain-based consumption in the state of Israel during the last two decades. We present a detailed, place oriented calculation procedure of Israel's grain footprint on specific locations around the world. We document modes of production, major energy inputs in specific sources of supply, the energy required for shipping from each source, and the CO2 emissions from those operations. Our research reveals that most of Israel's grain footprint falls on North America followed by the Black Sea region. It also shows that while the overall consumption of grain products has increased throughout the research period, the size of the footprint has been dropping in recent years as a consequence of changing sources of supply and grain composition. Finally, we discuss some of the implications of the method presented here for future footprint calculations and environmental resource management.

As the world economy ‘globalizes’, trade has become a major mechanism by which much of the human population supports its needs. While trade in resource commodities (natural income) can increase the well-being of people in both exporting and importing countries, it can also lead to depletion of natural capital and the loss of ecosystems integrity. In recent years, various researchers have attempted to address this problem using a consumption-based perspective on ecological change. Their work shows that the loss of ecosystem integrity in almost any region of the world can be attributed to both local and international consumer demand. This paper illustrates the utility of modified eco-footprint analysis in assessing export-related ecological change in Costa Rica. We quantify ecological footprint of consumers around the world on the productive ecosystems of Costa Rica, document the changing character of this footprint and highlight some of the linkages between production for export in Costa Rica and ecological degradation. We then discuss the implications of the increasing trade-based entanglement of nations for ecosystems and global sustainability.

The ‘Canadian prairies’ represent one of the world's great breadbaskets, supplying people all over the world with agricultural commodities ranging from various grains, through legumes and oilseeds, to both grain and grass-fed meat products. However, the expansion and intensification of Canadian agriculture in the last century has significantly altered the structure and degraded the function of prairie ecosystems. This, combined with climate change, has put the ecological sustainability of the region at risk and raises questions about the region's ability to continue supporting millions of distant consumers. We use variants of two existing sustainability assessment tools, material flows analysis (MFA) and ecological footprint analysis (EFA) to estimate the terrestrial ecosystem area and other physical inputs used on the Canadian prairies to satisfy export demand and to link this production to documented processes of ecological degradation. We discuss the implications of this interregional framework for impact analysis and conclude that, in a globalizing, ecologically full-world, trade-dependence implies previously-ignored risks to both importers and exporters. The results underscore the importance for all countries to protect or restore their own natural capital assets and enhance their self-reliance. Citizens and their governments, particularly of countries that have become irreversibly import-dependent, have a direct interest in ensuring that the ecosystems that support them are sustainably managed, wherever in the world the latter may be located.

Pulp production accounts for a major part of the Canadian forest industry. Because of the ecological damage caused by the industry, there has been growing interest in the use of agricultural residues as an alternative or supplementary fibre source for pulp making. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the use of crop residues has the potential to reduce the environmental ‘load’ associated with pulp production. We answer this question by estimating and comparing the ecological footprints of the currently dominant practice of using spruce and aspen harvested from the boreal forest, with the practice of using plant fibre from the residue of wheat and flax crops commonly grown in the Canadian prairie provinces. The analysis accounts for all major land and energy inputs associated with the two production processes. The study results indicate that the ecological load of pulp production varies among resources and provinces. However, overall, the total eco-footprint of pulped wheat straw is the smallest.

Modern urban life is characterized by the consumption of materials and energy, which are imported from all over the world and discharge waste that in many cases has a negative impact on ecosystems far from the cities in which they consumed. Indeed, cities cannot survive without worldwide hinterlands for resources and emissions sequestration. The ecological footprint (EF) concept provides valuable insights into the human appropriation of resources relative to earth’s carrying capacity, and therefore it enables us to compare human demands with nature’s supply and provides an indicator of human ecological sustainability. An attempt was made to calculate the EF of Ra’anana, Israel as a case study, to compare the EF-value with the expected for ecological sustainability and to emphasize the dependence on overseas ecosystems. Ra’anana, a town of 67,300 inhabitants in the year 2002, is considered a ‘dormitory town’ with a high quality of life. The EF was calculated using mainly the component method. The calculated EF for Ra’anana is 4.0 ha/resident which means that the required hinterland, located all over the world, is nearly 180 times the size of the town. The town’s EF is twice the value expected for sustainability on a global scale. We draw several scenarios in order to reduce the EF. On a national basis as well as with the town case study, electric energy, food and waste can be reduced and in turn would have a dramatic impact on the EF.

Ecological Footprint Analysis (EFA) at the city or regional scale does not typically include air travel due to a lack of readily available data. However, knowing the “load” placed on nature by various lifestyle choices, including air travel, is essential if we hope to enable society to live sustainably within ecological limits. This paper provides methods for including air travel in urban EFA, in a manner that is accessible to those that are interested in the complexities of urban sustainability. Our goal is to use the case of the Vancouver Metropolitan region to illustrate two methods in such a way that they can be replicated or adapted for use in other cities and regions. We found that the greenhouse gas emissions of air travel by Metro Vancouver residents for 2006 is between 1,191,070 and 1,402,420 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e). The resulting ecological footprint is between 287,030 and 337,980 global hectares (gha), or between 0.136 and 0.160 gha/capita. The dedicated carbon sink required to neutralize the carbon dioxide emissions from Metro Vancouver residents’ air travel alone is equivalent to twice the land area of the region (283,183 hectares).

Ecological footprint analysis (EFA) can be used by cities to account for their on-going demands on global renewable resources. To date, EFA has not been fully implemented as an urban policy and planning tool in part due to limitations of local data availability. In this paper we focus on the material consumption component of the urban ecological footprint and identify the ‘component, solid waste life cycle assessment approach’ as one that overcomes data limitations by using data many cities regularly collect: municipal, solid waste composition data which serves as a proxy for material consumption. The approach requires energy use and/or carbon dioxide emissions data from process LCA studies as well as agricultural and forest land data for calculation of a material’s ecological footprint conversion value. We reviewed the process LCA literature for twelve materials commonly consumed in cities and determined ecological footprint conversion values for each. We found a limited number of original LCA studies but were able to generate a range of values for each material. Our set of values highlights the importance for cities to identify both the quantities consumed and per unit production impacts of a material. Some materials like textiles and aluminum have high ecological footprints but make up relatively smaller proportions of urban waste streams than products like paper and diapers. Local government use of the solid waste LCA approach helps to clearly identify the ecological loads associated with the waste they manage on behalf of their residents. This direct connection can be used to communicate to citizens about stewardship, recycling and ecologically responsible consumption choices that contribute to urban sustainability.