August 3: Dairy vs. plant-based milk: what are the environmental impacts?
A growing number of people are interested in switching to plant-based alternatives to dairy. But are they better for the environment, and which is best?
Source: Our World in Data
Date: January 2022
Dairy vs. plant-based milk: what are the environmental impacts?
As individuals look to reduce their carbon footprint, they are making different choices in the milk isle. Dairy accounts for just over 25% of the carbon footprint of the typical EU diet (according to a 2018 study).
Cow’s milk has significantly higher impacts than the plant-based alternatives greenhouse gas emissions (3x as much), land use (10x as much), and freshwater (20x as much).
Let’s take a deeper dive looking at the greenhouse gas emissions of dairy milk compared to oat, soy, almond, and rice milk.
Milks- Dairy Milk
Greenhouse emissions (per liter of milk)- 3.15kg
Change from dairy milk- N/A
Milks- Rice Milk
Greenhouse emissions (per liter of milk)- 1.18kg
Change from dairy milk- 63% less
Milks- Soy Milk
Greenhouse emissions (per liter of milk)- 0.98kg
Change from dairy milk- 69% less
Milks- Oat Milk
Greenhouse emissions (per liter of milk)- 0.90kg
Change from dairy milk- 71% less
Milks- Almond Milk
Greenhouse emissions (per liter of milk)- 0.70kg
Change from dairy milk- 78% less
Are you hiring tech talent? Email me to feature your job in this newsletter.
Hi @Danny,
very interesting fact of the day 1 ... as always 😁
BUT this time I want to weigh in^^ ... because looking at gas emissions is only one important aspect. Please also look at these different types of ~milk when it comes to how much water each of them needs in the "production" to have 1L of it at the end... because I guess then almond milk is one of the worse alternatives 😥😖
I drink only almond milk.