This document discusses the environmental impacts of different foods and provides strategies for reducing the carbon footprint of one's diet. It finds that beef, lamb, dairy cheeses and butters have the highest impacts, while seasonal fruits and vegetables, lentils, beans and nuts have lower impacts. Through examples of swapping mince for lentils in Bolognese and choosing more plant-based options, it shows how small diet changes can significantly lower the environmental impact of one's meals. The key message is that a plant-based diet has a lower carbon footprint than one including meat and dairy.

1. Climate
kitchen
Do you know the impact
of your diet?
What you will need:
Paper and pencil

2. This session
• What are the carbon footprints of some
of our favourite foods?
• How can we reduce the environmental
impact of our food?
• What simple swaps can we make to
reduce our environmental impacts?
• We will look at how to introduce some
alternatives – with simple ingredients!

3. What are some of your favourite foods to
eat?
What do you like to cook or bake?

4. What are the impacts of these foods?
Vegan burger –
fresh in plastic
tray.
Dried beans
Frozen meat
sausages
British beef mince,
fresh in plastic tray
Frozen vegan
sausages
Brown lentils
Beef burger,
fresh in
plastic tray
Vegan spread made
from vegetable oils
Vegan cheese
made from
vegetable oils
British dairy
butter British dairy
cheese
Nuts
• Put the foods in order of impact
Fresh bread from a
supermarket
Seasonal fresh
fruit and veg
Out of
season fresh
fruit and veg Almond milk
Dairy
milk
Tin of beans

5. Things to consider
• Production – what is done to grow
the food
• Processing – how the food is
processed
• Transport – how the food is
transported
• Packaging – the materials used to
package the food
Production
45%
Processing
28%
Packaging
7%
Transport
20%

6. What are the impacts of these foods?
Vegan burger –
fresh in plastic
tray.
Dried beans
Frozen meat
sausages
British beef mince,
fresh in plastic tray
Frozen vegan
sausages
Brown lentils
Beef burger,
fresh in
plastic tray
Vegan spread made
from vegetable oils
Vegan cheese
made from
vegetable oils
British dairy
butter British dairy
cheese
Nuts
• Put the foods in order of impact
Fresh bread from a
supermarket
Seasonal fresh
fruit and veg
Out of
season fresh
fruit and veg Almond milk
Dairy
milk
Tin of beans

7. How to approximate the impact
Production (farming -
45%)
10 seasonal fruit and
vegetables, nuts, and
pulses
20 grains, pasta, bread,
and vegetable oils
30 out of season fruit
and vegetables
40 pork, chicken, eggs,
fish, milk
50 beef, lamb, cheese,
butter
Packaging (7%)
1 food sold loose or
with no packaging at all
2 lightweight paper,
card or plastic
3 heavier paper, card or
plastic
4 steel cans and glass
5 aluminium packaging
of any kind
Transport (20%)
4 anything grown less
than 30 miles away,
collected on foot or by
bike
8 anything else
produced within 30
miles
12 items produced in
the UK
16 food from overseas
delivered by truck or
boat
20 items that came by
air
Processing (28%)
5 items that have not
been processed at all
10 food that has been
processed very simply
(pulses, grains, fresh
meat, tinned fruit and
vegetables)
15 items with 1–5
ingredients
20 items with more
than 5 ingredients
25 anything frozen 20-46 low impact
47-73 medium impact
74-100 – high impact
Fresh bread from a supermarket, seasonal fruit and veg, out of season fruit and veg, fresh vegan burger in plastic tray, tin of
baked beans, British dairy butter, dairy milk, vegan spread made from vegetable oils, vegan cheese made from vegetable oils,
dried beans, fresh British beef burger in plastic tray, almond milk, British dairy cheese, frozen pork sausages, fresh mince in
plastic tray, brown lentils, nuts, frozen vegan sausages.

8. Answers
• Sort the food in order of impact
• Challenge – can you match up some possible swaps
Impact (not to scale)
Seasonal fruit
and veg (23-
24)
Dried lentils,
nuts, and
beans (37-38)
Almond milk
(39)
Tin of baked
beans (47-51)
Bread (48-49)
Out of season
fruit and veg
(52-57)
Vegan cheese
(54-57)
Vegan
spread
(55-58)
Vegan sausages
- frozen (54-58)
Vegan burgers
(55-59)
Milk (dairy) (65)
Pork sausages -
frozen (80-84)
Beef mince (80-
84)
Dairy
cheese (79)
Dairy butter
(79-80)
Beef burger –
fresh (85-89)

10. What can you think of?
Swap mince for lentils
Good alternatives
Try beans instead of chicken
Swap meat and dairy for
plant based items
Try less processed food
Buy local and seasonal
where possible, with light
or no packaging
Try plant milk alternatives
Swap cheese out
for vegan
alternatives, or use
nutritional yeast

11. Which ones are things we can do
to improve our impact?
1. Eating foods that are lower on the food chain (more plant-based
options, less or no meat)
2. Choosing foods that are produced with less water.
3. Eating foods higher up the food chain (more meat).
4. Buying food locally when possible.
5. Buying all frozen, processed food.
6. Buying food from far away.
7. Picking fresh foods with the least processing.

12. What swaps
did I make?
What effect
did this
have on the
impact?
Easy Bolognese
https://youtu.be/4Z7WSH9YPbA

13. Activity
• Build a meal making some swaps to have a better environmental
impact
• Use the swaps we discussed to swap out parts of your meal
Production
45%
Processing
28%
Packaging
7%
Transport
20%
1. Quickly sketch and label your meal
2. State what you have swapped
3. Describe the difference in your swaps
(production, processing, transport,
packaging)
4. Explain what difference this will have
on the impact of your meal

14. Build a low impact meal
1. Lentil Bolognese
2. I swapped mince for brown lentils
3. I used lentils instead of mince as they are pulses, are
not processed, and are bought from a refill shop (no
packaging). Lentils scored a 32, as they come from
outside the UK. Mince is beef and would score 75,
which is a much bigger impact than lentils.
4. The environmental impact of my lentil Bolognese is
less than a mince Bolognese because the impact of
the production of beef mince would be more than
lentils. Even though the beef may have been
produced closer, the production, processing and
packaging impact of the beef is larger than the
reduced transport impact.
Production
45%
Processing
28%
Packaging
7%
Transport
20%

15. How to approximate the impact
Production (farming -
45%)
10 seasonal fruit and
vegetables, nuts, and
pulses
20 grains, pasta, bread,
and vegetable oils
30 out of season fruit
and vegetables
40 pork, chicken, eggs,
fish, milk
50 beef, lamb, cheese,
butter
Packaging (7%)
1 food sold loose or
with no packaging at all
2 lightweight paper,
card or plastic
3 heavier paper, card or
plastic
4 steel cans and glass
5 aluminium packaging
of any kind
Transport (20%)
4 anything grown less
than 30 miles away,
collected on foot or by
bike
8 anything else produced
within 30 miles
12 items produced in the
UK
16 food from overseas
delivered by truck or
boat
20 items that came by
air
Processing (28%)
5 items that have not
been processed at all
10 food that has been
processed very simply
(pulses, grains, fresh
meat, tinned fruit and
vegetables)
15 items with 1–5
ingredients
20 items with more
than 5 ingredients
25 anything frozen
20-46 low impact
47-73 medium impact
74-100 – high impact
Activity
1. Quickly sketch and label your meal
2. State what you have swapped
3. Describe the difference in your swaps (production, processing, transport, packaging)
4. Explain what difference this will have on the impact of your meal
Production
45%
Processing
28%
Packaging
7%
Transport
20%

16. Activity
• Build a meal making some swaps to have a better environmental
impact
• Use the swaps we discussed to swap out parts of your meal
Production
45%
Processing
28%
Packaging
7%
Transport
20%
1. Quickly sketch and label your meal
2. State what you have swapped
3. Describe the difference in your swaps
(production, processing, transport,
packaging)
4. Explain what difference this will have
on the impact of your meal

17. True or false?
1. Beef is a low
impact food

18. True or false?
2. A plant based
diet will have less
of an impact than
a diet with meat

19. True or false?
3. Dairy is lower
impact than dairy
free alternatives

20. True or false?
4. If people choose
more plant based
options over meat
options, the impact
of their diet will
decrease.

21. True or false?
5. Nuts and
beans have some
of the lowest
emissions per
serving

22. True or false?
6. Dairy and meat
are lower impact
than plants.

23. True or false?
7. Some of the
higher impact
plant based
proteins still emit
less than the
lowest-impact
animal proteins.

24. True or false?
8. Nuts are a low
impact source of
protein.

25. Summary
What do you know now that you didn’t know earlier?
What could you do to reduce the impact of your diet?

26. Any
questions?
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