The question:
Describe a method for making people aware of the impact of energy, water, land resources that they are using.
An example might be to have product labels that list the amount of embedded energy and water estimated for the product and the amount of land required.
The crux of the problem:
The ecological / carbon footprint reduces all activities to the amount of land that it would take to balance the carbon dioxide production of an activity. This is a good start, but what if the activity had more impact on water than on energy? How could something like an ecological resources index account for that. Also, what is the difference if you use a gallon of water in Portland that came from a renewable resource (Bull Run) of it was in Amarillo and that gallon of water had been mined from ground water?
We have to be creative even to frame solutions.
Some creative ideas:
compare to the plant use needed (water, energy and land to grow corn for example)
make a label that has a triangle, each apex is how much land, energy or water - a small triangle is better
put tracking chips in food so that you can follow the distance
use social network to connect with people (would this be to shame them?)
user profiles related to lifestyle (such as biker, mass transit, Hybrid car, normal car, Hummer) and then identify product related to that profile, such as best-in-class, consistent or hypocrite. For example if a biker-type eats watermelon shipped in by jet from Namibia - hypocrite, but if a Hummer driver does -- it's conistent.
add special impact factor to the label or something that identifies the health of the community where this was produced
iphone app that can scan and give the information
rewards card for which the points are the environmentally positive points of each purchase
show equivalency in terms of other extravagences such as - eating this for a month is the same energy that it would take for you to fly to London
label could also include methods used (solar energy etc.) sort of like organic labelling