From Ellis Pritchard
In response to Donald A. Sands’s letter (19 January, p 31), while transport of goods is a major contributor to carbon dioxide emissions, it is only a small part of the carbon footprint of an average cup of coffee.
According to Mike Berners-Lee’s book How Bad are Bananas?, a cup of black coffee has a carbon footprint of 21 grams of CO2, including boiling just the right amount of water, and transporting and processing the coffee. However, when a decent drop of milk is added, its footprint more than doubles to 53 g. For a large coffee shop latte, the total may be as high as 340 g.
London, UK
