Who can be sustainable in Brazil? OPINION June 5, 2025

Image: OpenIA

Who can be sustainable in Brazil?

Discussing sustainability often sounds appealing, but it's not always inclusive. In advertising campaigns, it appears in idyllic scenes: cloth bags at the organic market, urban gardens overlooking the city, bicycles on well-planned cycle paths. But when the discourse meets the Brazilian reality, an uncomfortable question arises: Who can be sustainable in Brazil?

Is sustainability still a privilege?

The answer inevitably involves a question of access—geographical, economic, and educational. For example, organic food costs on average 30% to 50% more than conventional food, according to data from the Organic Promotion Association (Organis, 2023). This means that a large part of the population, which faces food insecurity(more than 33 million Brazilians, according to the Penssan Network), simply can't choose between an ordinary tomato and an agroecological tomato. They buy what fits in their pockets.

The same goes for practices such as the use of solar energy, composting, or sustainable urban mobility. According to the National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL), less than 2% of Brazilians have access to generating their solar energy, largely because of the initial cost of installation. Meanwhile, outlying neighborhoods often face a lack of selective waste collection, poor public transport, and a lack of green areas - all of which limit the adoption of sustainable practices in everyday life.

Sustainability that excludes, sustains what?

Indigenous researcher Ailton Krenak reminds us that “there is no sustainable future without social justice”. The phrase resonates strongly when we think of the structural exclusion of communities that have always lived sustainably, but which today are marginalized or made invisible in public policies and market logic.

Furthermore, the discourse of “individual responsibility” hides an uncomfortable truth: companies are responsible for more than 70% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Carbon Disclosure Project. Yet the burden of change almost always falls on the consumer.

Let's think beyond the green bubble, shall we?

This doesn't mean that people with fewer resources don't care about the environment; on the contrary. Many sustainable practices are already present in the suburbs, even if they don't go by that name. Reusing clothes, repairing objects, sharing resources, and avoiding food waste - all this is sustainability in practice. But these actions are rarely valued in the public debate.

The sustainability we need in Brazil dialogues with local realities, which values popular knowledge, that understands inequality as part of the problem. As economist Ignacy Sachs proposes, “sustainable development must be ecologically balanced, economically viable, socially just and culturally diverse”.

The solution: democratize sustainability

There is an urgent need to change the idea that being sustainable means buying more “green” products. Sustainability should not be a privilege, but a right. And for that, we need public policies that encourage sustainable practices in an accessible way, and a less elitist view of what it means to “take care of the planet”.

Being sustainable in Brazil cannot depend on the ZIP code.

With gratitude, 🌿🌍

Anna Luisa Beserra

Founder, Sustainable Development & Water For All

LinkedIn: Anna Luisa Beserra

SDW: Sustainable Development & Water For All

SDGs 1, 2, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16 that can be related to the text.