Numi Organic Tea creates carbon footprint label for its tea boxes

Photo © iStockphoto.com/Ulga

Numi Organic Tea launched a new carbon footprint label for all of its tea boxes beginning the first half of 2022. The label breaks down each product’s emissions into four categories: ingredients, packaging, transport, and preparation. This allows consumers to easily understand the carbon impact of tea purchases.

"Numi’s new carbon footprint label is our commitment to the planet, and we believe it’s vital to share our carbon number with consumers," said Reem Hassani, chief brand officer and co-founder of Numi, in a press release. “We hope this big step for sustainability encourages other brands to follow our lead and commit to sharing their carbon footprint. The more of us that join this movement, the more context consumers will have when considering the environmental impact of their daily habits. Consumers are looking for a way to take action against climate change and we want to empower them with the information they need to do that.”

Numi worked with Planet FWD—a carbon management platform—to estimate an average product carbon footprint for all its teas and botanical products. The study revealed that nearly half of a tea bag’s carbon footprint (46%) comes from boiling water. Consumers can reduce emissions by using an electric tea kettle, boiling only the amount of water they need and opting for clean-energy sources where available. Additionally, tea is preferable to coffee when it comes to carbon impact. The carbon footprint of a cup of Numi tea is 86% lower than a cup of conventional espresso and 37% lower than a cupof sustainably produced espresso.¹

Numi is Climate Neutral Certified. Its tea is carbon negative at the farm level because of regenerative practices like no-till farming, cover cropping, perennial planting, and agroforestry. Numi continues to work on reducing operational emissions in several ways, from working with producers to explore renewable energy options to reducing corrugate in shipping to using plant-based packaging. Over the last 10 years, Numi has worked with CarbonFund to offset 10,191 metric tons of CO2e from business operations.

Reference

1. Nab, C. et al “Life cycle assessment synthesis of the carbon footprint of Arabica coffee. Case study of Brazil and Vietnam conventional and sustainable coffee production and export to the United Kingdom” Geo Environ., vol. 7, no. 2 (2020), https://doi.org/10.1002/geo2.96