Dear Professor,
This is my final submission to show how I was capable of living abroad for a year while prioritising the environment, your challenge was to see if I could improve my carbon footprint while being in a new country and doing a lot of travel. I bet I could be at least 50% better than the average, and I used the climate calculator by CoolClimate. It told me that I was managing to limit my carbon footprint 62% better than the average in France. The challenges you brought up concerned the impact of travel; the issue of the carbon footprint linked to food consumption; the issue of being surrounded by products created to reduce costs yet sacrificed the climate; and finally the impact of living a student life. You proposed how these categories could affect the planet if I acted carelessly, and brought up the importance of Goal 15 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and here are my solutions to avoid falling into these categories and to try and support this goal. I also noticed the possible effects of Goal 13, and took these into account when living abroad.
TRAVELLING
My goal was to travel in a more environmentally friendly way without compromising experiences. I did this by walking a lot around the city I lived in, and for longer journeys, taking advantage of public transport such as the trains. I used Rome2Rio to compare pricing while keeping in mind the sustainability of all the routes I took, and took the regional bus services available to go skiing instead of taking a car. While flying, I tried to use more environmentally conscious airlines such as SAS, who have clear environmental goals, and who offer a young persons ticket which helped the choice become more affordable.
FOOD
For this, my goal was minimising climate impact through food choices. I did this by meal planning before going to the supermarket, and home cooking the grand majority of my meals. As well as this, I reduced my meat consumption, and prioritised getting organise fruit and vegetables when they were available. I also used a reuseable water bottle daily instead of buying one every day. I prioritised going to independent coffee shops, that were more environmentally conscious, and either sitting in or using recyclable cups.
SHOPPING
I avoiding falling into the fast fashion trap by limiting my shopping, and then turning to independent shops when I did go.
STUDYING
I focused on limiting the impact of my studying on the environment by making use of the library, so I didn’t use extra electricity and heating by studying in my flat. As well as this, I avoided AI and instead took advantage of the physical books on offer.
I hope you agree this shows how I have worked to protect the environment while still living a full life, and that you do uphold our wager.
Samantha
RESOURCES
– https://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/calculator
– www.rome2rio.com
– www.sasgroup.net/sustainability/sas-view-on-sustainability/environmental-responsibility/
– www.flysas.com/en/about-us/sustainability
