Over 2 tons of CO₂ per person per year and thus 34% of global emissions are caused by our diet. That alone is more than our planet can handle.
According to calculations, we will only reach our climate targets if we consume red meat and 2 liters of milk per week per person only once at the most. This is the only way we can reduce our food-related emissions by at least 50%.
If we ate climate-friendly three times a week, 1.13 million tons of CO₂ could be saved in Switzerland. In other words, the same amount of CO₂ as if 1.13 million fewer cars were on the roads in Switzerland.
Vegetarian dishes have a better climate footprint than average menus. In comparison, a typical vegetarian dish saves 48% CO₂, equivalent to 825 g CO₂ for a common portion.
During the day, we generate about 5.5 kg of CO₂ per person through food consumption. That is more than twice as much as our planet can bear. To achieve our climate protection goals, a reduction in our milk and meat consumption is essential.
Eaternity is the organization developing a solution for the food industry to accurately and efficiently measure the environmental footprint of food products. To enable smart choices for the good of people, planet and profit. We went public in 2014, but our history goes back to 2008. We are based in Zurich, Switzerland.
Our goal is to provide access to climate-friendly food for all. To achieve this, we are building solutions and services for the food service industry. We optimize your food business and ensure value creation for today and tomorrow.
Our food system accounts for 34% of all global CO₂ emissions. At 50 gigatons per year, this in turn equates to just over 2 tons per person per year for the world's population.
Globally, we consume an average of 2870 kcal per day and correspondingly 5.58 kg of CO₂ per day.
According to the Eat Lancet study by Marco Springmann, the World Climate Report calls for a reduction of at least 50%.
For Swiss Veggie day, we have calculated greenhouse gas emissions of food consumption in Switzerland based on data we have collected of more than 800 thousand served meals in Switzerland. We used the actual sales statistics so we can calculate the weighted average that acknowledges that some foods are eaten more often than others.
The results show that one meal is responsible for about 1’492 g of CO₂ on average. This amount is equivalent to greenhouse gas emissions for 11 persons using their mobile phones during one day. On the other hand, we specifically calculated vegetarian meals emission for more than 250 thousand meals, the result is that about 889 g of CO₂ emissions were generated per vegetarian meal. Fair emission comparison between meals is made by considering their nutritional values such as carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and water. The result shows that vegetarian meals are more climate-friendly as they generate 48.12% (824 g CO₂) fewer emissions than non-veggie meals (1’714 g CO₂) concerning identical nutritional values.
The saving for a vegetarian menu "0.825 kg CO₂" times "3 times a week" * "53 weeks a year" * "8.637 million Swiss people" = 1.13 million tons CO₂
A car causes "118.62 g CO₂" per person-kilometer, and on average a car is driven "13,469 km" with a load of "1.6 persons" per year. This results in 1.0 tons of CO₂ per car per year.
Therefor, eating climate friendly 3 times a week has the same effect as 1.13 million cars less on Swiss roads.
Emission generated in kg CO2 equivalent from the meals is compared with emissions caused by mobile phone usage to give the numbers some context. The manufacture of one mobile phone generates about 85 kg CO2e[1] and electricity used to charge a phone during its lifetime (average lifetime in EU5 is 21.6 months) emits 1.6 g CO2e per day. Therefore, we can conclude that 1 kg of CO2e is equivalent to the emission of 7.5 mobile phones per day.
We also calculated how much emission a person can save by eating more climate-friendly food in comparison with the CO2 emissions taken from the air by the growth of an oak tree. An oak tree captures around 106 kg of CO2 per year. Then, we can calculate that saving 1 kg of CO2 on a day is equivalent to carbon absorption by 3.4 oak trees on that same day.
By CO₂, we always refer to CO₂eq, i.e., emissions including methane, nitrous oxide, etc. And the balance is always calculated for Scope 3, i.e. including rainforest deforestation, fertilizer use and emissions from ruminants.
Several parameters are taken into account for calculating meals’ greenhouse gas emissions. We use parameters such as recipes, production method, seasonality, origin, transport, preservation, and conservation of ingredients. These emission data that we have collected for restaurants in Germany and Switzerland over the past years are combined with sales statistics of the meals so we can calculate the weighted average that acknowledges that some foods are eaten more often than others. We realized that calculating average emissions based on weight or portion is not fair because some meals contribute more to “filling and fueling” our bodies than others. Therefore, we use a concept we call “food unit” (FU) that measures the important nutrient contents of foods such as carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and water respective to an average person’s dietary needs. Then, considering everything, we can calculate the emission that can be saved by consuming vegetarian meals against non-vegetarian meals.
