Identifying the factors that drive changes in the ecological footprint of the Guanzhong-Tianshui Economic Zone is crucial for developing energy efficient industrial structures and for developing strategies to simultaneously improve the economy and environment, as well as ecology and society. Based on the zone's ecological footprint from 2005 to 2014, the importance of the PLS model and the standard PLS model coefficients were determined by using the ecological footprint and the PLS model, and the importance of various driving factors was compared. Significant factors included tertiary industry added value, gross domestic product, and total retail sales of consumer goods, but not local population or cultivated land area. Based on these results, specific countermeasures are proposed for the sustainable development of the Guanzhong-Tianshui Economic Zone, such as the combined optimization of industrial and energy structures, in order to improve energy utilization and efficiency. In addition, it is also necessary to improve use efficiency, protection, and the ecological carrying capacity of the land and to encourage low-carbon consumption and low-carbon lifestyles.