The Human Impact Indicator attempts to measure the amount of space needed by the population, divided by the amount of land that comprises Thurston County.  The amount of space needed by each individual is calculated from a formula that comes from the book Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on Earth by Williams E. Rees, Mathis Wackernagel, and Phil Testemale   Based on this formula, the amount of land required to produce all the food, fuel and fiber to sustain the average North American in our present lifestyles is 12.6 acres.  The Thurston County area is 0.48 million acres.  With the current population of 236,430 we need approximately six times the current amount of land available within the County.  Another way of saying this is that each resident in Thurston County would have to reduce his/her consumption of food, fuel and fiber by more than 83% order to live sustainably within Thurston County.  In addition, the rate of population growth in the county is increasing by 3% each year. 

At the current level of consumption, Thurston County has not lived within its ecological footprint since 1940 when the population was 37,285.

Despite current cutbacks in government spending, sustainability initiatives have saved government money because they cut waste from government practices.  Much of the savings the government is finding can also be found in business and school practices along with individual homes.  The Sustainable Community Roundtable would like to share with the public ways of conserving energy and waste in order to reduce the size of the individual footprint of Thurston County.  This is exciting because we see how sustainability practices can improve economic security as dependency on resources outside the county is reduced. 

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