Tofu: carbon footprint per kg
Live factor value
1.12 kgCO2e per kg
Source: The Big Climate Database (CONCITO, Denmark), 1.2 (revision 1). Factor set bcd-1.2-r1.
Tofu sits far below every meat in The Big Climate Database — the live figure is below, and it lands a little under eggs and among the pulses and the processed vegan proteins rather than beneath them. Soybeans fix their own nitrogen, so the crop needs little synthetic fertiliser, and turning beans into curd is a short, low-energy process compared with raising an animal.
The soy-and-deforestation story people often raise belongs to a different supply chain: the large majority of the world's soy is grown to feed livestock, not to make tofu. Food-grade soy for tofu is a small, largely separate trade, which is why the database's figure for it is so far below the meats whose feed it is sometimes confused with.
Worked example
A 400 g block of tofu: 0.4 × 1.12 = 0.4 kgCO2e.
Measure your own with the free food calculator.
Frequently asked questions
- Isn't soy responsible for deforestation?
- Most soy grown worldwide becomes animal feed rather than food for people. Eating tofu directly, instead of the meat that soy was fed to, uses less of the crop overall.
- How does tofu compare with meat per gram of protein?
- Tofu is lower in protein per kilogram than meat, so the gap narrows when measured per gram of protein — but it remains large. The ranking against every meat in this database does not change.