Abstract:
Ecological footprint (EF) is a concept developed for managing the necessary resources for anthropogenic activities, and also for measuring the humanity’s pressure on nature. The growing interest in recent years for development and improvement of ecological footprint analysis (EFA) proves the availability and increasing awareness on the need to assess and reduce the impact of human activities on the environment, both from public authorities and from organizations and end users. In this paper, we propose to analyze the possibility of eco-efficiency assessment for an investment project by using EFA along with other sustainable development indicators. Starting from the need of a simple calculation method, that is comprehensible to all investment stakeholders, we outline several suggestions in order to ensure that the obtained results could provide a decision support for investment financing, offering examples for a proposed project in the wine industry. Although there are several limitations, and EFA is still a work in progress, we consider that any action to reduce the environmental impact should be considered, and it is preferable that this action should be made voluntarily and prior to the state requirement of restrictions or corrective measures.
