The Water Footprint and Carbon Footprint of a Burger and its Analogues of Plant Origin

Abstract

Food production represents a complex sustainability challenge, notably in terms of climate change and freshwater use. In order to promote the incorporation of sustainable prepared meat dishes into the agrifood market, the present project aims to assess the environmental performance of three different burgers: a beef burger meat certified as “IGP Ternera de Navarra”, a plant-based burger (soy, beans and rice) and a hybrid burger (50-50 composition) by comparing the water use and the CO2 emissions relative to their nutritional value. The environmental indicators used to perform the current study were the water footprint (WF), the carbon footprint (CF) and their respective nutritional productivity indexes. The water needed to produce the beef burger was 1.8 times greater than the quantity needed to produce the hybrid burger and 21 times greater in the case of the plant-based one. In turn, regarding the CF, the beef burger emitted approximately 2 times more kgCO2e along the supply chain when compared to the hybrid burger; and 13 times more than the plant-based one. However, when taking into account carbon fixation studies of grasslands, meat burgers seemed to reduce considerably their GHG emissions. The plant-based burger appeared to be richer in carbohydrates and proteins than the meat and hybrid burgers. The plant-based burger therefore was more sustainable in terms of water use and carbon emissions and more nourishing than the meat and the hybrid options. The hybrid burger shows intermediate environmental and nutritional values.

Keywords: Environmental assessment, water footprint, carbon footprint, sustainable burgers, alternative proteins, nutritional productivity