Gender, Meat Consumption, and the Dietary Carbon Footprint of Gen Z

This study examined climate-friendly dietary behavior among young consumers by linking dietary greenhouse gas footprints with environmental awareness and food-consumption practices. Primary data were collected from 400 undergraduate students at Bursa Uludağ University, Türkiye, in 2025. Dietary greenhouse gas footprints were estimated using reported food-consumption quantities and emission coefficients from the literature. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, analysis of variance, correlation analysis, reliability analysis, and multiple regression models with HC3 heteroskedasticity-robust standard errors were employed. The mean daily greenhouse gas footprint of the five assessed food groups was 5.14 kg CO2-eq per capita, with red meat contributing the largest share. Male students had significantly higher dietary footprints than female students. Environmental awareness was measured using an 11-item composite scale with acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.754). Female students reported significantly higher awareness scores than male students (3.07 ± 0.53 vs. 2.89 ± 0.50, p < 0.001), whereas differences across age groups were not statistically significant (p = 0.141). In the adjusted regression model, environmental awareness (B = 0.758, p = 0.015) and male gender (B = 1.516, p < 0.001) were positively associated with dietary greenhouse gas emissions, suggesting a possible awareness–behavior gap among young consumers.