Version: 1.0.3 | Published: 26 Mar 2026 | Updated: 3 days ago
FIO Food Environmental Sustainability Look-Up Table
Dataset
Summary
Short Description:
This look-up table links 200 food and drink product categories to environmental
sustainability metrics (greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and land use) for
use in estimating the environmental sustainability of grocery products.
DOI Name:
Data Citation:
Wilkins, E., Dineva, M., Green, M. A., Gilthorpe, M. S., Johnstone, A. M.,
Morris, M. A. (2026) "FIO Food Environmental Sustainability Look Up Tool". Data
asset provided by the Healthy & Sustainable Places Data Service (ES/Z504336/1).
DOI:10.82147/013
Tier:
Tier 0
Access Type:
Open
Theme:
Sustainability
Documentation
Description:
This look-up table links 200 food and drink product categories to environmental sustainability metrics (greenhouse gas emissions [kg CO2-eq/kg], water use [L/kg], and land use [m2.year/kg]).
This look-up table is designed to be used with grocery product data in order to estimate the environmental sustainability metrics of food and drink products. It can be used in two ways:
1. To link directly (e.g., "as-is") food and drink products to global average estimates for greenhouse gas emissions [kg CO2-eq/kg], water use [L/kg], and land use [m2.year/kg], wherein environmental sustainability data are predominantly taken from Poore & Nemecek (2018);
2. To link food and drink products to commodity weighting equations; these weighting equations can then be used to calculate environmental sustainability metrics using alternative (e.g., regionally specific) sources of environmental sustainability data for these commodities. For example, if a weighting equation for a given category of product was 0.6*(Cane Sugar) + 0.4*(Beet Sugar), then any alternative environmental sustainability data for Cane Sugar and Beet Sugar could be input into this equation to calculate an environmental sustainability metric for that category of product.
For a list of the tables and columns/fields included in this dataset, please see the Data Dictionary in the menu on the left hand side.
Is Part Of:
N/A
How Published:
Data asset provided by the Healthy & Sustainable Places Data Service
(ES/Z504336/1).
Coverage
Temporal
Frequency:
STATIC
Temporal Aggregation:
Snapshot in Time
Geographic Bounding Box
Lower Left Latitude:
N/A
Lower Left Longitude:
N/A
Upper Right Latitude:
N/A
Upper Right Longitude:
N/A
Provenance
Source:
Transaction-Derived Data
Purpose:
Transaction data were originally collected for operational purposes by the
Retailer. The look-up table was developed based on these transaction data for a
study estimating the environmental sustainability footprints of food and drink
purchases from the Retailer’s stores.
Collection Status:
Complete
Method of Collection:
The look-up table is derived from three main sources: 1. Product data from a
large supermarket retailer in the UK (15-16% market share at time of study);
these data covered all products (>27,000) available between March 2021 – March
2022, and included product ingredients, classification, description, and weight
information. 2. Transaction data (>160 million product sales) for a cohort of
loyalty card holders (>18 years) residing in the Yorkshire and Humber region of
the UK, covering all loyalty card purchases made by this cohort over 12 months.
3. Published literature on global average greenhouse gas emissions, land use,
and water use for 45 food and drink commodities, predominantly from Poore &
Nemecek (2018). Products were classified into Living Costs and Food Survey
(LCFS) categories (n = 68). LCFS categories with high product diversity and
sales were further divided into subcategories. LCFS categories/subcategories
were ascribed commodity weighting equations which comprised either i) a single
commodity (e.g., for single-ingredient LCFS categories); ii) a simple average of
several commodities (e.g., for lower-selling categories and/or categories with
simple ingredients); or iii) a weighted average of commodities based on
indicator product ingredients. Indicator products were the highest-selling
product within each category/subcategory. These weighting equations were used to
calculate environmental sustainability metrics (per kg) for each
category/subcategory using the environmental sustainability metrics for each
commodity and the associated weightings. The look-up table published here
includes the commodity weighting equations and calculated environmental
sustainability metrics (per kg) for each category/subcategory. Further
methodological information is available in the associated publication.
Notes on Representation:
The look-up table was produced for the UK food environment and has not been
validated for products outside the UK. The look-up table was produced for
grocery retail products and does not cover "out-of-home" products (e.g.,
takeaway food, restaurant food, etc.). Sales data were used to map products to
sustainability metrics. These sales data were for loyalty card holders living in
the Yorkshire and Humber region who shop with the Retailer regularly and across
a range of product types. The indicator products selected may not be
representative of the whole UK population. If using direct sustainability
estimates from Poore & Nemecek (2018), system boundaries run from farm to store
gate and exclude, e.g., packaging, emissions related to cooking by consumers,
etc. As our estimates are derived from single-ingredient commodities, they do
not account for any pre-processing emissions and/or ingredient weight changes
from cooking.
Notes on Bias:
If using direct sustainability estimates from Poore & Nemecek (2018), the data
are based on mean global estimates and are, therefore, not fully representative
of procurement channels in the UK. Variability in sourcing of commodities (i.e.,
the origin of different commodities within the UK market, and for the Retailer
specifically) will likely affect the environmental sustainability estimates.
LCFS categories with low sales were not disaggregated into subcategories, even
if the products within the main LCFS category were relatively diverse. Estimates
for lower-selling LCFS categories that have not been disaggregated may be less
accurate. LCFS subcategories were primarily defined with regard to variations in
greenhouse gas emissions across ingredients and may not be the most suitable
categories for capturing variability in land use and water use across products.
The land use and water use estimates may be less accurate.
Access and Governance
Usage
Resource Creator:
- Dr. Emma Wilkins (orcid.org/0000-0001-8596-6215)
- Dr. Conor D. Rankine (orcid.org/0000-0002-7104-847X)
Data Use Requirements:
NO REQUIREMENTS
Access
Jurisdiction:
Great Britain
Data Controller:
Healthy & Sustainable Places Data Service
Availability Status:
Active
Licence:
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Format and Standards
Language:
English
File Format:
Comma-Separated Value (.csv).
Estimated Dataset Size:
<25MB