There is a growing trend for companies to showcase the carbon footprint of their products. Quorn has been doing this for a while, as has Upfield which makes dairy-free spreads like Flora.
The latest company to join the list is UK soft drinks maker Tenzing. From April it will add carbon labelling to its products to highlight how its drinks are carbon negative and that the company offset more carbon than it emits.
Tenzing claims that it will be the first in the soft drinks space to highlight its carbon footprint in this way and describes the move as a challenge to others in the industry to do likewise.
The company, which is named after one of the first men to reach the summit of Everest, says its drinks are made with 100% plant-based ingredients, natural caffeine, vitamin C and electrolytes. It has worked with climate impact calculator Carbon Cloud, and concluded that each can of drink has a footprint of 0.46 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilogram of product. The average canned soft drink is apparently 0.49 kilograms.
“Frankly it’s quite shocking that we’re the only soft drink in the world that is carbon labelling. Our hope is other brands, especially the big players, will follow suit,” said Huib van Bockel, founder of Tenzing.
“Our mission is to only borrow our energy from nature and to make sure to give back more than we take. People care about the ingredients they eat and drink but also the impact the brands they buy from have on the planet. For any company to manage their footprint, the first step is to understand every aspect and secondly share it with the world, only then can we tackle our carbon emissions.”
It will be interesting to see if labeling it this way attracts consumers. There is evidence that younger customers will favour products they perceive to be lower carbon. Oatly, for example, makes a very big deal about its carbon footprint.
