This paper presents a novel approach to multi-criteria sustainability performance assessment of horticultural crops. The crops are ranked by the decision-making method ELECTRE IV with environmental, energy and technological criteria. In total eight indicators are taken into consideration and calculated based on primary data collected from over 260 farms in northern Iran. Additionally, Data Envelopment Analysis is used to calculate the technical efficiency and potential for energy saving by different management of the production units. The novel contribution of this study is the comparison of several horticultural products (oranges, kiwis, persimmons and tangerines), when most of the previous studies have focused on one product. Moreover, novel calculations of the carbon footprint are presented for oranges, tangerines and persimmons. This paper also includes the first study on the environmental impact of persimmon fruit's production. The obtained results show that energy efficiency for orange, tangerine, kiwi and persimmon products: 1.1, 0.84, 0.53 and 1.22, respectively. In each hectare of kiwi orchards, the amount of CO2 emissions of 1219 kg and the ecological footprint of 3.21 hectares have been calculated, which is statistically significant compared to orange, tangerine and persimmon. The chemical and fuel inputs have the greatest potential for reducing energy consumption in the studied products. Results of ELECTRE IV showed that kiwi is the most sustainable selection for the studied region followed by orange, persimmon and tangerine, respectively. Kiwi has also relatively low technical efficiency. This means that this product has the greatest potential for a reduction of energy consumption, while maintaining the same amount of crop. It is recommended to include the development of kiwi orchards in the policies of Guilan, but with more careful management of the production inputs.

We analyse the relationship between individuals' subjective wellbeing (SWB) and measures of their country's sustainability. SWB data are sourced from the World Values Survey; sustainability is measured by ecological footprint (EF) and by components of the World Bank's adjusted net savings (ANS) series. ANS, a measure of weak sustainability, represents changes in a country's capital stock including financial, physical, human and natural capital. We show that an increase in strong sustainability, measured by EF and by ANS's natural capital component, is associated with reductions in SWB over the next decade followed by a rebound in SWB over the subsequent decade. We show also that the perfect substitutability assumptions on which ANS is calculated do not hold. Our findings highlight an important political challenge: governments that run sustainable policies may decrease the near-term wellbeing of citizens. This can reduce government's short-term popularity even though the improved sustainability may raise future wellbeing.

The Mediterranean dietary patterns comply better with recommended nutrient and micronutrient intakes. The Mediterranean diet (MD) was associated with reduced mortality and lower risk for metabolic chronic diseases. It has also low ecological, carbon and water footprints due to its high share of plant-based foods. In fact, the share of plant-based dietary energy is higher in the Mediterranean than in Northern Europe. The Mediterranean hotspot is a major centre of plant and crop diversity. Mediterranean people gather and consume about 2300 plant species. This review paper aims at highlighting the nutrition–health benefits of the MD and analysing the main environmental impacts of the Mediterranean food consumption patterns. There is a growing body of scientific evidence that the MD has significant health–nutrition benefits and low environmental footprints, so there is urgent need to reverse the ongoing erosion of the MD heritage and to promote it as a sustainable diets model.

Event tourism is accompanied by social, economic and environmental benefits and costs. The assessment of this form of tourism has however largely focused on the social and economic perspectives, while environmental assessments have been bound to a destination-based approach. The application of the Ecological Footprint methodology allows for these environmental assessment boundaries to be extended. This case study applies the footprint methodology to the Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) Biennial Conference held in Adelaide in 2004. The results of the case study provide important insight into the planning and delivery of future events for the Association and event managers.

The Industrial Revolution and intensification of agriculture have, in some cases, led to economic activities that profoundly influenced the ecosystem to the point where environmental stability and geographic political security are jeopardized. The uncertainty about oil reserves, rising energy prices and the threat of harmful climate change effects has intensified the search for alternative farming systems that reduce negative environmental impact. This study reports the ecological impact of conventional (CON), integrated (INT), organic (ORG) and biodynamic (BD) farming systems calculated from data collected in a field trial at Maribor, Slovenia, and interpreted using the SPIonExcel tool. This tool is a member of the ecological footprint family and describes the area necessary to embed a human activity sustainably into the ecosphere. Three-year results show a markedly reduced ecological footprint of the ORG and BD systems in production of wheat (Triticum aestivum L. ‘Antonius’) and spelt (Triticum spelta L. ‘Ebners rotkorn’), mainly due to the absence of external production factors. When yields were also considered, the ORG and BD systems again had a reduced overall footprint per product unit and increased ecological efficiency of production. Thus, ORG and BD farming systems present viable alternatives for reducing the impact of agriculture on environmental degradation and climate change. Nevertheless, room for improvement exists in the area of machinery use in all systems studied and yield improvement in the ORG farming system.

Academic interest in ecotourism has grown rapidly in recent years, fuelled by the increasing popularity of ecotourism holidays. This paper adopts ecological footprint (EF) analysis as a means of estimating the potential net EF of hypothetical international ecotourism scenarios involving air travel. A procedure for the rapid calculation of indicative, potential minimum net EF estimates using secondary data sources was applied to a variety of source/host country scenarios with the aim of establishing a reasonable and conservative range of EF values associated with ecotourism. The influence of changing assumptions about the broad nature of resource demand at the destination and of three length of stay periods was considered. In total, 252 estimates were made of the potential net per tourist EF, assuming conservative resource use at the destination. For a 14-day holiday, potential net EF estimates ranged between 0.02 and 4.26 global hectares. Only one, a 21-day scenario, produced a net negative EF value, suggesting the potential for an overall reduction in absolute demand on global renewable resources. Some 80% of 14-day holiday scenarios produced potential per tourist EF estimates greater than the annual average per caput EF in low income countries. The size of the transit component was very important to overall net EF estimates, supporting largely anecdotal concerns about the environmental impact of long-haul flights to ecotourism destinations. The implications of these findings for judging the impact of ecotourism were found to vary according to different absolute and relative benchmarks, although the global EF of ecotourism is likely to be considerably less than that of mass tourism.

The ecological footprint (EF) can be used to investigate relationships between population, environment and development. In China, the per caput EF is estimated to have increased by 83% between 1981 (0.82 ha caput-1) and 2000 (1.49 ha caput-1), to about 1.31 times China's area (including its oceanic territory), while the ecological deficit increased from 0.066 ha caput-1 in 1981 to 0.735 ha caput-1 in 2000. Over this period, the proportions of six sub-footprint types have changed considerably: the percentages of arable, fossil energy and forest land decreased from 44.8%, 41.5% and 4.1% to 27.1%, 40.1% and 3.0%, respectively; while sea, pasture and built-up land percentages increased from 3.8%, 4.4% and 1.3% to 15.2%, 12.4% and 2.2%, respectively. The production coefficients of gross domestic product (GDP) to the EF of China increased from 584 RMB ha-1 in 1981, to 1522 RMB ha-1 in 2000, reflecting an increasing efficiency in resource use. The EF correlates positively with disposable income and expenditure, which can be described by income and expenditure elasticity. Some measures are suggested to decrease the Chinese ecological deficit on the road to sustainability.

There are many environmental and socio-economic concerns about the shrimp aquaculture industry. This study, based on interviews, direct observations and literature reviews, shows that the Indian hatchery industry is heavily dependent upon the continuous support of natural resources and ecosystem services generated by marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. The mangrove ecosystem support area (‘ecological footprint’) needed to supply the hatcheries with Penaeus monodon shrimp broodstock, and the aquaculture grow-out ponds with postlarvae, exemplify the dependence on external ecosystems. Each hectare of mangrove in the Godavari River delta generated an annual fisheries catch of 0.8–1.5 P. monodon spawners (gravid females), valued at US$ 92–184. The entire Godavari mangrove delta had a partial gross economic value of US$ 3.0–6.0 million per year for the provision of shrimp spawners alone. The average hatchery, producing 75 million postlarvae annually, had an ecological footprint of 534 ha mangrove for the life-support input of shrimp spawners. The ecological footprint of intensive shrimp ponds was up to 11 times the pond area for postlarval input alone. The shrimp ponds in the State of Andhra Pradesh needed 35 000–138 000 ha of mangroves to satisfy the spawner requirement to hatcheries, and this implied a need to appropriate mangroves in other regions. Hatcheries were prepared to pay up to US$ 2000 for a single shrimp spawner, which also illustrated that the mangrove support areas regionally available were too small. Other concerns about the industry are the net loss of employment if hatcheries replace wild postlarvae collection, the extensive use of groundwater creating direct resource-use conflicts, by-catch problems in broodstock fisheries, and pollution by effluents. The risk of hatcheries introducing, amplifying and propagating disease affecting both cultured organisms and wild biota is another concern that can, and should, be addressed.

This paper critically reviews the theoretical and practical implications of adopting the original ‘ecological footprint’ concept as an index of the sustainability of aquaculture production systems. It is argued that the concept may provide a reasonable visioning tool to demonstrate natural resource dependence of human activities to politicians and the public at large. However, due to its inherent weaknesses, the ‘ecological footprint’ fails to provide a cohesive analytical tool for management. From an ecological perspective, its two-dimensional interpretation of complex ecologically and economically interacting systems is one major weakness. From an economic perspective, the ‘footprint’ fails to recognise factors such as consumer preferences and property rights which have a major influence on the allocation and sustainable use of resources. The interactions among social, ecological and economic factors are discussed in an attempt to foster a broader inter-disciplinary view of criteria required for a sustainable use of aquatic resources.