The carbon footprint of students and professionals

We have investigated in our study Cartografía Carbono 2020, whether there are significant differences between the carbon footprint of professionals and students.

It is widely known that the environmental awareness of younger generations seems to be stronger, so beforehand we assumed that their carbon footprint might be lower.

What have we noted? Well, the transition from a student life to a professional one involves a significant increase in CO2 emissions.

Is this because university students are no longer environmentally conscious? Our hypothesis is that it is mainly linked to the increase in purchasing power, which makes them consume and travel more. In fact, 69% of the increase in the carbon footprint of professionals is due to transport.

And here comes the big question. It is clear that an increase of the incomes are a major temptation to indulge in more consumption and thus having a lifestyle with more greenhouse gas emissions. However, will this change in the future, as current students seem to be more concerned about climate change than previous generations?

If you want to know more about the emissions of the Spanish population you can download the full report here.

To reduce your carbon footprint we invite you to make use of The Planet App, available for iOS and Android.

If you are a company and want to know more about your greenhouse gas emissions and those of your employees, read here how we can help you.