MY DOG, A CLIMATE OFFENDER?

The ecological footprint and sustainability are on everyone's lips in times of climate change. But what about the green pawprint? Because our four-legged friends cause more environmental impact than most dog owners are probably aware of.

Many people are now trying to avoid plastic, eat climate-friendly food, leave the car at home more often and much more to protect the climate and our planet's resources. Every step is important and commendable.

But what about our dogs? What does their CO2 pawprint look like?

The average dog we are referring to in this article weighs 15kg and lives to be 13 years old (1).

And the average dog produces 0.2kg of feces per day, which is 1 ton for a dog's lifetime. In addition, 0.4 liters of urine per day, or 2,000 liters in a dog's lifetime (2). This "output" is linked to soil acidification and freshwater ecotoxicity.

According to a 2020 study by TU Berlin, the average dog produces greenhouse gases in its lifetime equivalent to 13 flights from Berlin to Barcelona and back . That's quite a lot (1).

In total, one dog per year causes environmental damage that is equivalent to a car journey of around 3,700 km (3).

If you consider that in 2020 around 11 million Dogs lived in Germany in 2020 and the trend is rising (3), this results in enormous numbers that have an equally significant impact on our environment.

The good news: we can reduce the negative environmental impact of our dogs.

While we can't control how much urine and feces our dogs shed each day, we can collect the feces and prevent it from acidifying the soil and making freshwater toxic (2). It is best to use sustainable poop bags instead of the classic plastic bag.

However, food has a much greater impact: around 90% of CO2 emissions come from dog food (3)! This takes into account the use of feed soy, animal use, materials and transportation.
And this is exactly where we can take action. We can reduce this figure by switching entirely or at least partially to plant-based feed. Snacks in particular are an excellent way of reducing meat consumption and thus the carbon footprint of our pets.

The TU Berlin has compared a meat-based diet with a plant-based diet: The average dog causes 8.2t of CO2 equivalent with a meat-based diet (1), while a plant-based diet only causes 5.4t of CO2 equivalent. Thus, a vegan dog diet saves 34% CO2 equivalent!

We were able to save 664,243kg of CO2 equivalent in 2021 with our products ! This corresponds to over 1,050 flights from Berlin to Barcelona and back (4). A figure that we are very proud of and to which you have all contributed! At this point, we would also like to thank you very much, because without you this would not have been possible!

It would therefore be most climate-friendly if there were no dogs. But that would only make life half as nice. It has been proven that dogs have a positive influence on the health of their owners (5), as they encourage more exercise and release feelings of happiness - not only in humans, but also in dogs.

In principle, however, the smaller the dog, the lower the carbon footprint (3).

And an adopted dog - which in the best case is even fed a plant-based diet - has a smaller carbon footprint than one from the breeder anyway, as an adopted dog was already there anyway and there is no additional environmental impact from the breeder.

You can find more tips on how to reduce your four-legged friend's carbon footprint in this blog post or in our upcycling videos on our YouTube channel:

(1) Yavor, K.M. and Lehmann, A. (2020): Environmental Impacts of a Pet Dog: An LCA Case Study. TU Berlin. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340847804_Environmental_Impacts_of_a_Pet_Dog_An_LCA_Case_Study

(2)Weber, T. (2021): CO2 pawprint: balance sheet of a dog's life. BIORAMA. CO2 pawprint: balance sheet of a dog's life | BIORAMA

(3) Bethge, P. (2021): My dog, the eco-sow. SPIEGEL. Dogs and cats are terrible climate sinners: Mein Hund, die Öko-Sau - DER SPIEGEL.

(4) Own calculation based on data from the study by Yavor and Lehmann from TU Berlin, see source 1.

(5) BUSINESS INSIDER (2018): Dogs have a dramatic effect on the human psyche, according to a new study. Dogs have a dramatic effect on the human psyche, according to a study - Business Insider