Tomorrow will mark a week since boarding our flight to São Paulo. Since my arrival I have learned a lot about the culture and the differences between my home and here. In terms of renewable energy, São Paulo differs from the United States with its natural urban scenery, transportation choices, abundance of trash cans, price and choice of fuel, and home design.

The first visual aspect of the city that caught my eye was the shade. The entire city seemed to be in the shade as the streets were lined with a thick canopy of forest quality trees. From above, the city seems to be a forest with skyscrapers erupting out of it. This choice not only improves the beauty and natural sense of the city, but helps reflect sun otherwise adsorbed by asphalt lowering the temperature of the city. 

In São Paulo on most streets have numerous trash cans the help alleviate littering. These are emptied regularly.

My other first impression of the hostel was the openness of its design. In all places except the bedrooms were open to the environment. This allowed the breezes to cool the building without the need of energy intensive appliances such as air conditioning machines and fans. The climate of very little rain and warm days but cold nights also greatly helped this design.

Furthermore the greatness difference in energy conservation between Brazil and the United States was in the hotel. A room key was required to use the light so once someone left, power was shut off to the room. This saved countless amounts of electricity by removing the parasitic drain of off appliances while also cutting power to lights left on and AC units if the guests are not present.

Out of home design, Brazilian's choice of transportation was also much more energy efficient than drivers in the States. First, mopeds and motorcycles account for a large portion (about 40%) of the civilian modes of transportation. Moped and small engined motorcycles achieve very high MPG (>70) thus making them very efficient for travel. Second almost all cars driven on Brazilian streets are subcompact hatchbacks with small (<2L) engines. An example:

Also instead of using gas guzzling pickup trucks, Brazilians used Volkwagen Type 2s as the primary mode of transporting large items. Type 2s have a tiny 50HP engine that makes them extremely efficient.

A Volkswagen Type 2

Overall nearly all vehicles driven on the roads are much more efficient than vehicles in the United States. The downside to Brazil's transportation is that many people drive. The cities are littered with parking garages and the streets are clogged with cars. The further the problem, since traffic is abundant, the wealthy commute by helicopter with is extremely inefficient mode of transportation and very poor for the environmental.

The last aspect of Brazil that aids its renewable automotive field is its use of ethanol. Ethanol is cheaper than gasoline and available at all gas stations. This leads to financial incentives to people to buy cars that run of ethanol.