Meat Footprint Calculator

What Is a Meat Footprint Calculator?

Meat production has a significant environmental impact — from greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption to land use and pollution. This calculator estimates the ecological footprint of your meat consumption using per-kilogram factors from Poore & Nemecek (2018), based on life-cycle assessments across thousands of farms worldwide.

Environmental Factors per Kilogram

Enter how much of each meat type you eat per week, month, or year. The calculator multiplies your consumption by these average impact values:

• Beef: 60 kg CO₂, 15,400 L water, 164 m² land
• Lamb: 24 kg CO₂, 10,400 L water, 185 m² land
• Pork: 7 kg CO₂, 6,000 L water, 12 m² land
• Chicken: 6 kg CO₂, 4,300 L water, 7 m² land
• Fish: 5 kg CO₂, 5,000 L water, 8 m² land

Equivalents

To put CO₂ emissions in perspective, the calculator also shows tree and driving equivalents:

• Trees: one mature tree absorbs about 22 kg of CO₂ per year.
• Driving: an average car emits about 0.404 kg of CO₂ per mile.

Beef has by far the largest footprint per kilogram. Even small reductions in red meat consumption can meaningfully lower your environmental impact. For related tools, see the Bag Footprint Calculator, the Flight Carbon Footprint Calculator, or the Carrying Capacity Calculator.