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You may have read over on TreeHugger how Tropicana has released statistics on the carbon footprint of orange juice, and how this compares to bottled water. Which may have you wondering if you should be concerned about how much orange juice you are drinking.
Well, here's the short(ish) answer; Though bottled orange juice has a significantly higher carbon footprint that water, in the scheme of your overall emissions it really doesn't factor heavily. Simply making the choice to eat one meal without meat per week would have a greater impact on your carbon footprint over the year than giving up OJ would. As always, I would recommend choosing organic orange juice over non-organic: The greatest part of the carbon footprint of non-organic orange juice comes from the fertilizers used, and in addition the environmental benefits of organic farming itself, you can further reduce the carbon footprint of your daily dose of Vitamin C by doing so.
Daily Orange Juice is a Small Part of Your Carbon Footprint
In case you're wondering about the exact numbers: According to Tropicana's figures on their Pure Premium not-from-concentrate orange juice, it has a carbon footprint of 3.75 pounds per half gallon. Which means that a daily 8 ounce serving of this juice totals up to 175.2 pounds of carbon emissions over a year. Based on average US figures for personal carbon emissions, your orange juice fix is only 0.44% of your total carbon footprint.
Even With a More Sustainable Carbon Footprint, Orange Juice Isn't Too Bad
However, as any regular Planet Green reader is probably aware, US per capita carbon emissions need to be seriously reduced if we're going to get a handle on global warming (by 80% according to some scientists). Don't worry though, even taking that into account, drinking orange juice is pretty insignificant: Any 80% reduction in carbon emission would mean you would be emitting 4.1 tons per year; even in this scenario drinking orange juice daily is 2.2% of your emissions.
Make it organic, but drink up! You have more important eco-efforts to tackle than worrying about the carbon footprint of your orange juice.
