Pulses vs Tofu: carbon footprint
Pulses1.79kg CO₂e / kg
vs
Tofu3.16kg CO₂e / kg
Pulses or Tofu? Here's what each one costs the climate, measured per kilo over its whole life.
Pulses runs about 1.79 kg CO₂e a kilo. Tofu runs 3.16.
Tofu is the heavier choice, about 1.8× Pulses.
Swap Tofu for Pulses and you cut about 1.37 kg a kilo, near 43% off.
Per kilo, that gap is a 8 km drive in a diesel car.
Pulses: Beans and peas fix their own nitrogen, so they dodge most fertiliser emissions. Very low.
Tofu: Tofu and soy milk hand you protein at a fraction of beef's footprint. The swap that actually moves the needle.
Per-kilo numbers skip portion size and how the food was farmed, so take them as the shape of things, not the last word.
More match-ups
Figures from OWID / Poore & Nemecek 2018, licensed CC-BY 4.0.
How we get these numbers: Methodology.