Let’s talk about FoodPrint.

It can be hard to know the environmental footprint of food. But one thing’s for sure: veg is the way to a more sustainable diet.

All the veg on the PTOV now has a number that represent's its environmental footprint captured in kg CO2e/kg. Needless to say, vegetables are generally a safe bet when it comes to sustainable diets. The average footprint for a veg on the Periodic Table of Veg is 0.56 kg CO2e/kg…whereas the footprint of chicken is about 5x that, and lamb about 50x!

What is CO2e?

CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent, CO2 equivalent or CO2eq) is a standard measure used to compare emissions by converting all greenhouse gas emissions to the equivalent amount of CO2. While a CO2 measure only accounts for carbon dioxide, CO2e wraps in the equivalent for carbon dioxide produced by all the other greenhouse gases, allowing for a more accurate and concise overall view of a food's emissions.

Where does your Carbon Footprint Data come from?

All Carbon footprint data for the veg on the Periodic Table of Veg has been provided by the incredible team at Sufu- a company helping SMEs measure and decrease their climate impact. Through their low-carbon network small companies can take the steps needed to reduce their emissions.

How is the veg CO2e calculated?

Sufu provided UK emission data where possible, otherwise a European or US average is shown. Some veggie data is formulated on scientific assumptions based on how they are grown or the family of plants they are grown from, which is common practice. There are 5 out of the 90 veg without emission data because there have been no studies done on these veggies and assumption would not have been based sound.