Tool for ecocities

The ecoCity Footprint Tool is a user-friendly database that draws on typically available, community-based information to reveal the urban metabolism (flows of energy and materials) of municipalities and urban regions, as well as their ecological footprint and a consumption-based and territorial GHG emissions inventories. The ecoCity Footprint Tool has been built to be applicable to any city, municipality or local government regardless of size, location, or level. 

Local government staff will be able to use data from the ecoCity Footprint Tool to identify activities and consumption habits that are having the greatest impact on their community’s footprint and GHG emissions. Using the Tool, they can also forecast which policy interventions can best reduce these impacts. 

The ecoCity Footprint Tool will help cities overcome data and resource barriers, and it will help them identify what is required to tackle climate change and ecological overshoot. A prototype version of the ecoCity Footprint Tool, developed by Dr. Jennie Moore, Associate Dean at BCIT, has already been used to create the City of Vancouver’secological footprint and consumption-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory. The outputs from the Tool are highly valued by the City, and are informing the strategies, actions, and monitoring methods for their “Greenest City 2020 Action Plan”.

How It Works

The ecoCity Footprint Tool is a user-friendly database that draws on community-based information to create an ecological footprint, a consumption-based GHG emissions inventory and an urban metabolism. The ecoCity Footprint Tool has been built to be applicable to any city, municipality or local government regardless of size, location, or level. Local government staff will be able to use data from the ecoCity Footprint Tool to identify activities and consumption habits that are having the greatest impact on their community’s footprint and GHG emissions. Using the Tool, they can also forecast which policy interventions can best reduce these impacts. 

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