One Planet Living: Policy & Research

One Planet Living is a roadmap to a sustainable global economy.

If current trends continue, by 2050 we will need a 2nd planet in order to satisfy our demands for energy, commodities and water.  As our ecological debt increases, so does the likelihood of collapse of ecosystems and economies, and mass migrations and conflicts.

The challenge facing decision-makers today is to shape a new paradigm in which humanity’s global footprint is – and stays - within the earth’s capacity to sustain life, and where the natural resources of our planet are equitably shared.

WWF is already working with policymakers and researchers to develop the tools to make the transition to One Planet Living.

Ecological Budget

Developing policies which address the effects of unsustainable consumption and production requires an understanding of the impacts of physical flows of resources at global, regional and local levels.

The Ecological Budget UK project quantifies environmental impacts by regions, material streams and industry sectors, allowing policymakers to make informed decisions that can help reduce such impacts.

The Ecological Budget UK project establishes a detailed material flow analysis and Ecological Footprint of the entire UK by region, devolved country, and local authority area.

A key output is the Resource and Energy Analysis Programme (REAP), a software tool which will ‘desktop’ ecological footprint, enabling decision-makers to generate different policy scenarios to integrate One Planet Living goals into strategy development.

One Planet Economy

The UK Government has highlighted the need for a One Planet Economy, and the evidence base needed to support it.

However, it has yet to identify the policies required to achieve it.

The One Planet Economy Network (OPEN) has produced a series of technical reports outlining the road to a One Planet Economy.

Footprint tools for local governments

Policy-makers at local level need evidence-based tools to help them make informed policy decisions in order to plan and deliver local services sustainably.

The REAP software tool has been designed to help policymakers and researchers make the right decisions and reduce environmental impacts without undermining the quality of local services.

Ecological Footprint results are now freely available for local authority areas in England, Scotland and Wales.

The results provide local areas with a key sustainable development indicator which can be used to help improve decision making, analyse different scenarios in order to predict footprint reductions, and evaluate progress over time.

One Planet Living in the Suburbs

Buildings can be responsible for up to half of a nation’s carbon emissions, with housing alone contributing about a quarter.

At current rates of construction, it is expected that approximately two thirds of the existing housing stock will still be standing in 2050.

In order to reduce the ecological footprint of buildings, therefore, we need to explore ways in which to ‘retrofit’ existing housing stock. One Planet Living in the Suburbs is a report which looks at the challenge of enhancing the sense of community, happiness and wellbeing, and reducing the impact on the planet.

It uses the 10 principles of One Planet Living to highlight both the challenges and opportunities. It finds that up to 9 in 10 people in developed nations may live in suburban areas, and the ecological footprint of these areas can be significant.

Using a local case study, the report lays out a comprehensive and detailed set of recommendations for local planners and others.