The carbon footprint of apples
Apples emits about 0.342 kg CO₂e per 1 kg of fresh produce. Below is where that figure actually comes from — every stage of the chain, not a single headline number.
- Farm
- 0.226 kg
- 61%
- Emissions on the farm itself — livestock methane, fertiliser, fuel, manure.
- Transport
- 0.096 kg
- 26%
- Moving it from farm to processor to shop.
- Packaging
- 0.045 kg
- 12%
- Producing the packaging it reaches you in.
- Processing
- 0.004 kg
- 1%
- Turning the raw product into food: milling, refining, slaughter, curing.
Land Use Change is negative (-0.029 kg) for this food — growing it stores more carbon in soil and vegetation than the change releases. That credit is already subtracted from the 0.342 kg total.
How it is grown changes the number by 44%
These are 9 separately assessed production systems for the same product. Emissions are farm-gate — the part the grower controls — and range from 0.056 to 0.1 kg CO₂e. A label on a shelf almost never tells you which one you are holding.
- Apple, conventional, fixed spraying system and electric platform, at orchardlowest0.056
- Apple, conventional, electric platform, at orchard0.063
- Apple, conventional, scab-tolerant, at orchard0.079
- Apple, conventional, fixed spraying system, at orchard0.08
- Cider apple, conventional, national average, at orchard0.082
- Apple, conventional, national average, at orchard0.086
- Apple, production mix, national average, at orchard0.086
- Apple, conventional, non scab-tolerant, at orchard0.087
- Apple, conventional, rain cover, at orchard0.1
kg CO₂e per 1 kg of fresh produce, cradle to farm gate. Farm-gate figures exclude processing, packaging and transport, so they sit below the full total above.
Lower-carbon alternatives
Each emits less than half as much as apples.
Similar products
Common questions
- How much CO2 does apples produce?
- About 0.342 kg CO₂e per 1 kg of fresh produce, measured across the supply chain. That is roughly the same as driving 2 km in an average petrol car.
- What drives the footprint of apples?
- Farm is the largest contributor at 0.226 kg CO₂e, about 66% of the total. Transport is only 0.096 kg — which is why what you eat matters far more than how far it travelled.
- Does how apples is produced change its footprint?
- Yes, substantially. Across 9 production methods in this dataset the farm-gate emissions range from 0.056 to 0.1 kg CO₂e — a difference of 44%.
- Where does this data come from?
- The WRAP UK Food & Drink Emission Factor Database v2.0, which aggregates peer-reviewed life-cycle assessments. This product's figures come from Clune et al. (2017).
Figures from the WRAP UK Food & Drink Emission Factor Database v2.0, which aggregates published life-cycle assessments; this product's data originates from Clune et al. (2017), for global. Real values vary by farm, region and method — treat these as the shape of the problem, not a measurement of any one item on your shelf.
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