Ecological footprint for campus sustainability in Malaysia

Abstract

Ecological footprint (EF) is applied in universities to reduce the environmental impact and resource consumption from its main activities; teaching-learning, research and operations. The campus also functions in providing a physical environment covered by land area, building and infrastructure to support the living environment. In this case, the campus environment represents a small city level of EF sustainability assessment. The unique roles of EF can contribute to campus sustainability in developing own version of EF which measures the level of campus sustainability. With this approach, unsustainable elements can be determined and actions can be taken to mitigate the negative impact to the environment. In more specific, EF translates to individual levels that have an impact towards a campus by converting levels of consumption into the amount of land needed. This preliminary paper discusses the rationale and needs of EF as one of sustainability assessment for Malaysian universities in the context of campus sustainability.