Ecological Footprint Training Program
Teaching is central to the IEFLL partnership. Over the partnership’s seven years, more than 76 master’s and PhD students and postdoctoral researchers will be trained.
Students complete a comprehensive training program in data analytics for environmental studies. Students learn the concepts and methods of ecological footprint and biocapacity accounting within the broader context of sustainability metrics and accounting systems. Students also gain practical computational and data analytics skills used to produce the National Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts.
There are several courses offered in the training program, these courses are offered at York University, the University of Iceland, and the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Students outside of these institutions can access the course materials, please contact us, if you are interested in learning more.
To produce the National Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts, students must complete all required courses and be enrolled at York University or the University of Iceland. See more information about some of the offered courses below.
Ecological Footprint Courses
This course is offered at York University and is required to produce the National Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts. This course introduces the concept and methodology of ecological footprint and biocapacity accounting. It covers the concept of sustainability, an overview of the ecological footprint and biocapacity accounts, a multi-day intensive work-through of analytical techniques used to produce the accounts, an investigation of some of the critiques and limitations of the accounts, how the accounts align with the International System of Environmental-Economic Accounts (SEEA) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and how to engage policy professionals in using the accounting system.
This course develops mastery of 1) demonstrating an understanding of ecological footprint and biocapacity accounting, 2) appraising the ecological footprint within the context of other sustainability metrics and accounting systems, and 3) communicating the potential for additional applications of the ecological footprint and biocapacity accounting.
This course is offered at York University and is required to produce the National Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts. This course develops analytical and computational skills that are transferable to other data-intensive initiatives. These accounts quantify how much of the planet’s regenerative capacity is needed and is available to sustain humans with food, fibres, wood products, areas for settlements, and the sequestration of anthropogenic carbon emissions – all of which are accounted for at a national level for all countries from 1961 to the present.
This course develops a student’s mastery of 1) using specific software (MySQL Workbench, Excel, R Studio) and coding languages (SQL and R) and web services (BitBucket) to manage, analyze, and communicate data that inform the National Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity accounts, 2) applying principles of security, data integrity, and quality assurance to produce usable data successfully, and 3) understanding and codifying scholarly literature about the accounts and related concepts.
Other Courses
York University and the University of Iceland offer two versions of this course, and students must take one from either school to produce the National Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts. This course introduces economic concepts and approaches that help explain and address environmental issues. It examines markets and market failure; the economic consideration of ecosystem services; non-market valuation of externalities; directing markets to internalize externalities; informing decisions in the public interest; discounting; human behaviour; assessing sustainability with nature considered as natural capital; wellbeing; global trade; and unemployment.
This course is offered by the University of Iceland as a hybrid, synchronous-asynchronous model. This course is an introduction to systems thinking and system dynamics modelling. Students will be introduced to systems thinking theory and systems thinking tools, as well as the role they play in sustainability and guiding sustainable development. They will also go through variable definition, determining variable units and building Stock and Flow Diagrams. Students will learn how to build causal loop diagrams and use them to explain the behaviour of a system, followed by assessing leverage points of intervention in a system. Towards the end of the online component, students will learn how to use the basic functions of STELLA and build very simple quantitative system dynamics models.
Experiential Learning
This learning occurs through paid employment as a Data Analyst with the Footprint Data Foundation. As data analysts, students will acquire and analyze global datasets from the United Nations (Comtrade, Food and Agriculture Organization, Fishstat), the International Energy Agency, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and others. These datasets will be used to develop an edition of the National Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts for all nations from 1961 to the present.
Your experience working on the accounts will develop your mastery of 1) specific data sets and data procedures used to generate an edition of the accounts, 2) the application and troubleshooting of computer code and data queries, and 3) the application of factors and equations using computational hardware and software, including MySQL, R, Workbench, Excel, and the proprietary software INFAMOUS.