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Calculate your personal ecological footprint

An ecological footprint measures how much land is required to supply your living and lifestyle needs - that is food, housing, energy/fuel, transport, and consumer goods and services. Our ecological footprint calculator estimates the size of your personal footprint using averaged national data and information you provide about the things you buy and use. The larger your footprint, the more resources are needed to support your lifestyle.

The Ministry for the Environment is currently undertaking a review of the usefulness of the ecological footprint calculator - particularly in regard to its ability to motivate more sustainable behaviour.  For further information about some simple things you can do to reduce your impact on the environment, please visit www.sustainability.govt.nz.

This Ecological Footprint Calculator was designed for the Ministry for the Environment by Dr Murray Patterson and Garry McDonald of Massey University. Further details are available in their report "Ecological Footprints of New Zealand and its Regions". The calculator has been designed for New Zealand production and consumption patterns. It isn't suitable for calculating footprints for other countries.