Ecological Footprint
An ecological footprint measures the land and sea area people require to produce resources that we consume. This includes our food, our clothes, fuel we use for our cars and building materials for our homes. It also measures how much land and water is required to deal with the waste products of our consumption, such as carbon dioxide and agricultural pollution.  - footprint.wwf.org


Note: Your carbon footprint is included in the ecological footprint
Carbon Footprint
The total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2). – Timeforchange.org

Note: Carbon footprints are included in the ecological footprint, but as the most commonly known footprint we separate it so people can see how it relates to other footprints.
Water Footprint

Your individual water footprint is equal to the water required to produce the goods and services consumed by you.  
​– Waterfootprint.org

How the footprints work together

There is no way to holistically measure the complexity of environmental issues and their interactions, but with Full Footprint we try to get a bit closer! 

Current Full Footprint =   Ecological Footprint (includes Carbon) + Water Footprint

Human Impact =   
Ecological Footprint (includes Carbon) +Water Footprint  
+Other Measures (ie. a small quantity of certain pollutants which aren't able to be assimilated back into natural ecosystems)* 
+The interactions of all of the above (sum is often greater than the parts)**


*We aim to eventually include these other pollutants, such as PCBs, plutonium, and dioxins, in Full Footprint. Please contact us if you are an academic institution / independent researcher who would like to do some research regarding how we can best capture these few remaining nebulous pollutants which aren't captured in the footprint. Learn more about these other pollutants here.
​
**We would be interested in incorporating research about interactions in Full Footprint in the future, please reach out if this is a research area of interest