Siwa Oasis, a city located in western Egypt, is the site where the oldest fossilized human footprint was found, which dates from a little over a million years ago or the footprint left on the lunar surface on July 21, 1969 by The American astronaut Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 manned space mission, just two examples of how a simple activity carried out by our species, such as moving around, generates what would seem an insignificant disturbance to its environment.
Footprints printed with ink on paper of a newborn's feet are kept by his parents to remember the origin of a new life, while the marks specifically left on the feet of celebrities are sometimes kept in a collection, such as the one next to the Grauman Chinese Theater Hollywood California in order to honor them in life and commemoration after death. In linguistic terms, "leaving a trace" means transcending, that is, extending the consequences or effects of a fact. In another context, footsteps are used to be able to track tracking during a hunt and may prove evidence of past activities.
Chaos Theory says that through an amplification process a considerably large effect will be generated in the short, medium and long term, this has also been called the Butterfly Effect. In complex, dynamic and variation-sensitive systems they can imply great differences in future behavior, that is, any change, no matter how minuscule it seems like the simple walk of humanity on planet earth, has had tangible, but also perhaps invisible, repercussions. to our understanding for many hundreds of years and until today we begin to perceive its resulting effects, many totally divergent and we hardly even try to predict the future.
The term ecological footprint was coined by William Rees and Malthis Wackernagel who describe it as an indicator of sustainability whose objective is to know the degree of impact that a certain human community, person, organization, country, region or city has on the environment. It is an ecological accounting system, which shows the consequences of actions and activities on the planet. It is also a tool to determine how much land and marine space is needed to produce all the resources and goods that are consumed, as well as the surface to absorb all the waste that is generated, using the technology that we demand today.
The Ecological Footprint is measured from global hectares (hag), that is, 10 thousand square meters equivalent to 1.4 soccer fields like the one at the Azteca Stadium. These hectares with average world capacity to produce resources and absorb waste. The total productive area of the Earth or biocapacity is 13,600 million hag, that is, 2.1 hag per person. However, exceeding by 0.6 hag. the capacity of the planet.
A country's footprint is measured by adding up all of its agricultural land, grazing land, and forested areas, as well as the fishing areas required to produce the food, fiber, and wood that country consumes, and its footprint is the integration of all of these areas regardless of where they are located.
A quarter of the surface of our planet is biologically productive, this is equivalent to approximately 13,400 million hectares of land and sea. The equivalent of 1.8 hectares corresponds to each inhabitant of the planet to satisfy our consumption and absorb all our waste, the equivalent of two and a half pitches like those of the Azteca Stadium. However, our ecological footprint is 2.7 hectares, that is, 3.6 soccer fields.
The dimensional difference between the footprints of the countries is due to various historical factors such as the Industrial Revolution, the Capitalist System, the growth of the world population, the demand for more resources and impacts on the planet, among many others.
In just the past eight decades, humanity's footprint exceeded the Earth's total biocapacity for the first time. Since then, said demand has been increasing. By the year 2005, the footprint of our planet already exceeded almost thirty percent of the planet's capacity. To continue at this rate of our demands by 2035, we will need the equivalent of two planets to maintain our lifestyle.
The carbon footprint measures the production of greenhouse gases per person, on the portion of land capable of absorbing and retaining it. These are derived from the production of energy from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas.
The evaluation of the impact on the environment of our buildings becomes more important every day because the manufacture of the materials that make them up requires energy and uses resources from our planet, for this reason, gradually the laws put more pressure on building of an environmentally friendly way.
Using new mechanisms such as the Environmental Product Declaration or EPD. This is a standard document that provides verifiable and quantifiable information about the environmental performance of a product, material, or service. This tool is used to assess the environmental impact throughout the life cycle of products in accordance with the International Standard UNE-EN ISO 14025. For this, a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is used in accordance with UNE International Standards- EN ISO 14040 and UNE-EN ISO 14044. EPS is applicable to all sectors, from automotive to electronics, and offers a scientific and neutral way to value a product from an environmental perspective in terms of:
LCA data in the form of impact categories, such as global warming potential or resource depletion. Other information on the life cycle, such as the energy consumption of fossil or renewable resources at each stage, information on polluting emissions in the manufacture or content of dangerous substances.
Other additional information, such as product features related to environmental aspects (for example thermal insulation such as NOVIDESA's advanced construction systems), environmental management systems or ecodesign in the organization, how to manage the end of product life , etc.
EPDs are part of the family of Ecolabels and environmental declarations for products and services defined in the series of International Standards ISO 14020, which are classified in Ecolabels (ISO 14024), Self-declarations (ISO 14021), Environmental declarations (ISO 14025). These standards seek to guarantee the reliability of environmental claims made by organizations, based on scientifically based methodologies and whose results can be verified by a third party. They use a life cycle approach, being only necessary to carry out a complete LCA for the Environmental Declarations.
Currently, the construction sector is actively working on environmental declarations due to the importance of participating in building certification schemes such as LEED or BREEAM today and, above all, the recent Norms that regulate Construction in our country and in the world.
At Novidesa we are proud because our products are participants in the first Sector Environmental Product Declaration for the construction industry in Mexico and in Latin America, this achievement was achieved in collaboration with the working group led by the National Association of the Chemical Industry (ANIQ ).
We have only just begun to realize the consequences of the excessive appropriation of something that was never for the exclusive use of our species and that today threatens ourselves. We realize that never in the evolutionary history of our world have there been so many humans so demanding of so many growing and sometimes changing needs, found in practically every corner of the planet, and we note that our past steps have brought us where we are today. Today we are aware of an uncertain future, but today we know that we can take steps towards a better course that is much more sustainable and as a fragment of the poem says to the life of Seville's Antonio Machado Ruiz:
"Walker your footsteps are the road and nothing else; Walker, there is no path, the path is made by walking."
