Which drinks are most environmentally friendly?
Vegan drinks and whole milk
Paula Wenzel investigated "The environmental impact of vegan drinks compared to whole milk" during an internship at ESU-services Ltd. She compared drinks made from oat, soy, rice and almonds with cow milk in 2017.
Enology and ecology
"Enology and ecology" is the theme of a presentation by Niels Jungbluth for the "Wädenswiler Weintage 2013" at the university of applied sciences in Wädenswil (ZHAW). Wine consumption has a share of about 7% of the environmental impacts caused due to nutrition. The environmental impacts of wine from different origin and grape varieties have been investigated in an LCA. The lecture shows that differences in the production patterns are more relevant than the impacts due to transportation.
Coffee or tea?
The ecological impacts of Darjeeling tea have been assessed and compared to coffee by our intern Geneviève Doublet. The LCA results show that transport has a minor influence whereas the water boiling makes a significant contribution to the impacts. Drying of the tea leaves is also an important step. Consumers should be careful not to cook more water than needed. By comparison with tea, one cup of coffee has higher environmental impacts.
Publications (examples)
Nadia Malinverno, Niels Jungbluth (2021) The environmental impact of an energy drink. Report for a practical training task at ESU-services GmbH
Jungbluth N., Keller R. and Meili C. (2017) Life cycle assessment of a detailed dairy processing model and recommendations for the allocation to single products. In: Int J LCA, Online First, pp., DOI: 10.1007/s11367-017-1392-x
Jungbluth N. and Keller R. (2014) Life cycle assessment of tap water: Analysis and comparison with other beverages. Translation of the script for Aqua & Gas. Project commissioned by the Swiss Gas and Water Association (SVGW)
Doublet G. and Jungbluth N. (2010) Life cycle assessment of drinking Darjeeling tea: Conventional and organic Darjeeling tea. Report practical training. ESU-services Ltd., Uster, CH.
Doublet G., Jungbluth N., Flury K., Stucki M. and Schori S. (2013) Life cycle assessment of orange juice. SENSE - Harmonised Environmental Sustanainability in the European food and drink chain, Seventh Framework Programme: Project no. 288974. Funded by EC. Deliverable D 2.1
Büsser S. and Jungbluth N. (2009) The role of flexible packaging in the life cycle of coffee and butter. Int J LCA. DOI 10.1007/s11367-008-0056-2, ResearchGate
