Coffee or Tea – Which Is More Sustainable?

The world is divided into coffee drinkers and tea drinkers, a distinction strongly influenced by the culture of each country, but also by personal preference. In terms of climate and environmental impact, it may seem that the impact of these beverages would be small compared to our overall food consumption, but their global reach means that their footprint is very significant in absolute terms. But which of the two is more sustainable, in which format, and with which method of preparation?

The origins of tea and coffee are shrouded in legend. In the case of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis), which originated in East Asia, it is said that in 2737 B.C., Chinese emperor Shennong was boiling water under a tree when the wind blew some leaves into the pot. As for coffee (Coffea arabica and C. canephora), native to Ethiopia, the story goes that around 850 A.D., a goat herder named Kaldi found his animals prancing about after eating from this plant. The earliest concrete evidence comes much later, with tea predating coffee by a significant margin: tea was cultivated in China over 2,100 years ago, while references to coffee don’t appear until the 15th century in Yemen. In the Arab world, coffee was adopted as a substitute for alcohol, though not without religious opposition.

The footprint on the land

Coffee and tea consumption is unevenly distributed around the world, with tea winning out as the most widely consumed beverage after water. Interestingly, the biggest consumers of either are not the countries that first spring to mind: Finland is the biggest coffee drinker, with 12 kilos per person per year—four cups a day—followed by its Scandinavian neighbours. As for tea, Turkey tops the list with more than three kilos per person per year, three to four cups a day, followed by Ireland, which surpasses the UK.

The global figures justify concern about their environmental impact: 3.75 billion cups of tea and over one billion cups of coffee are consumed every day. Nearly 11 million tonnes of coffee and more than six million tonnes of tea are produced annually, occupying 11.4 and 5.1 million hectares of cultivated land, respectively. This is where the first difference becomes apparent: while tea uses the leaf of the plant, coffee uses only the seed of the fruit and therefore requires more land; cup for cup, coffee requires almost 7.5 times as much terrain. 

According to Kamaljit Bawa (University of Massachusetts) and Jianguo Liu (Michigan State University), who analysed the environmental impact of coffee and tea in 2023, given that both crops are also grown in tropical and subtropical regions, home to the world’s most diverse ecosystems, “expanding consumption of both commodities and climate change will continue to exert pressure on land and the nature it supports.”

Land use is not the only parameter where tea is more sustainable. According to Bawa and Liu, the carbon footprint of coffee is 0.16 kilos of CO₂ per litre, compared to 0.064 for tea, or 2.5 times greater; and the water footprint of coffee is 140 litres per cup, compared to 34 for tea, more than four times greater. The authors point out that although both crops are grown in rainy regions, groundwater and surface water are used for irrigation during dry periods, and water is also consumed in processing for production.

Impact varies by format

Bawa and Liu’s figures refer to instant or soluble coffee brewed in water, the format with the smallest carbon footprint. The carbon footprint increases for ground coffee and with the addition of milk. According to environmental policy expert Alice Garvey of the University of Leeds, a cup of espresso generates around 20 grams of CO₂, but this figure rises to almost 800 grams for a latte. On the processing side, researchers at the University of Quebec reviewed published studies to calculate emissions from the entire life cycle of coffee, from cultivation, transport and processing to brewing, waste and even cup washing.

The results compare four formats: filter coffee (25 grams of coffee), the popular capsules (14 grams), the French press plunger method (17 grams) and soluble (instant) coffee (12 grams). The production of the coffee itself is the stage with the greatest impact—certified coffee is preferable—accounting for 40% to 80% of total emissions, but there are differences; the largest carbon footprint is for filter coffee because it uses more product and consumes more electricity, and the smallest is for soluble coffee. And there are surprises: although capsules get a bad press for their environmental impact, the authors find that they are a greener option than filter coffee, as they allow users “to optimise the amount of coffee and water per consumption.”

Thus, the capsules save between 11 and 13 grams of coffee, which in turn reduces emissions by 59 grams of CO₂, while the manufacture and disposal of the capsules emits only 27 grams. However, the researchers warn that the convenience of the capsules may increase coffee consumption, negating the benefit, and that they should be recycled or reused in any case. Of course, disposable cups should be avoided; plastic cups have been banned in the EU since 2021. 

Tea has its own waste problem, tea bags. Plastic mesh bags have recently become popular, but even paper tea bags often have polypropylene in the seal—the trend today is to replace it with the bioplastic polylactic acid—and this waste creates microplastics in the drink and plastic pollution in the environment. Compostable tea bags or bulk tea brewed in mesh infusion balls are the most recommendable options. But these issues aside, Bawa and Liu say the verdict is clear: “Altogether, the environmental impact of a cup of coffee is much larger than that of tea.”

Javier Yanes