Camila Colas - São Paulo, Brazil: My Carbon Footprint

Oct 16, 2020 by Camila Junqueira Colas

I used International Student Challenge Carbon Footprint Challenge to calculate the amount of CO₂ I have as my footprint in a year.  At first, I was surprised to see that my footprint is higher than  the Brazilian average footprint. I have never done any type of quiz like this one, measuring my footprint. Therefore, I although I thought it would be a huge footprint, I didn't know it would be that big. 

Comparing my footprint to the average Brazilian footprint, I can see that, in two categories - purchases and food - my footprint is lower. On other hand, in the Home and Transportation category, my footprint is way bigger.

Although I am not a vegetarian neither a vegan - and I do consume a lot of meat - I eat less food than most Brazilians and I usually buy from local producers, cooking at home rather than going out. In Brazil it is common for people to eat a lot of meat - specially  beef - and this impacts a lot the average footprint of a Brazilian in the category of food. Since I  eat a lot less beef than average Brazilians, my footprint in this category was lower than the average in my country. 

However, I mostly ride cars in my daily life - comparing it to other transportation methods. Since in Brazil most people take more bus than I do, specially when traveling between cities, my usage of cars has affected very negatively my footprint. Apart from that, I also traveled by plane last year - a transportation that has a huge carbon impact.  

After seeing this huge Carbon footprint, I realised that I need to start walking and taking collective transports more. I am proud to say, thought, that I have already implemented some of this ideias in my life - and therefore my actual carbon footprint made my transportation must be lower than it would be if I had taken this quiz some years ago.  Apart from that, I am going to try my hard to have a lower carbon footprint in the home category. For that, I will change some of my habits - and encourage my family members to do the same - to lower our electricity usage and other parts of our routine at home to decrease our footprint.

Yet, I believe that only this changes won't be enough, and I am also going to try to reduce even more my footprint in the categories of Food and Purchasing. 

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