Small Cup, Big Impact: Brewing a Better Future Together
There’s power in bringing people together around warm drinks.
In 1675, England’s King Charles II attempted to shut down London’s coffee houses, fearing they had become breeding grounds for rebellion. But the people loved them too much—so much that the ban lasted only eleven days. It turns out, when people come together over a cup, ideas start brewing. Today, we’re stirring up a quieter kind of revolution.
Surprisingly, the biggest contributor to tea’s carbon footprint isn’t from farms or factories— it’s from the energy we use to boil water at home. We get it: using a little less water probably seems like too small an act to meaningfully impact the climate crisis. But when that small shift is multiplied by millions of tea drinkers —alongside the efforts of our farmers and partners—it becomes a powerful movement for sustainable change.
This Earth Day, we’re inviting everyone to honor everything the planet gives us by giving something back —one delicious cup at a time.
A more mindful tea ritual connects us all.
Every cup links you to a global network of farmers, makers, and brands working to reduce our impact on the planet. At Yogi, sustainability isn’t a side project —it’s been central to our mission for years, and we’re proud to share how far we’ve come.
Our first step was understanding where our emissions come from. We took a closer look—breaking down the data from multiple angles, starting with mapping the geographical origins of our footprint:
- 58% from North America
- 37% from European operations
- 5% from our Italian tea factory
Next, we identified which ingredients carry the most impact. In North America, the top contributors to our footprint are:
- Ginger
- Tea
- Licorice
- Cassia
- Chamomile
In Europe, the list shifts slightly —mainly due to differences in how far ingredients travel:
- Tea
- Cardamom
- Licorice
- Fennel
- Black Pepper
We’ve broken down transit vs. cultivation emissions, which allows us to better direct our efforts to take more targeted action. For example, cardamom’s biggest impact comes from how it’s grown—not how it travels— so we’re focused on promoting regenerative farming practices at the source.
So, what are we doing with all this insight?
In short: we’ve been reimagining how our business operates. Here are some of the steps we’re taking:
- Rerouting distribution in Europe to reduce travel distances
- Shipping ingredients directly to our Italian factory instead of through Germany
- Lightweighting our packaging to lower its carbon impact from production and transit to disposal
- Monitoring power usage at our facilities for greater efficiency
- Using 100% certified renewable energy at our Italian factory
- Operating the world’s first LEED-Certified tea factory in Eugene, Oregon
- Reducing plastic in our tea envelopes (our teabags are already made from natural fibers)
- Choosing trains over trucks to transport materials whenever possible to reduce our fossil fuel usage
- Localizing packaging sourcing for our U.S. factory to cut transit emissions
All of this is in addition to remaining deeply committed to organic and regenerative farming practices—farming methods that not only reduce emissions, but can actually be carbon negative.
This is why boiling just the water you need really does matter.
Because you’re not acting alone. Your small action joins with the efforts of Yogi, thousands of farmers, and tea lovers across the world. There is power in these small actions. Together, they make a meaningful difference.
So next time you brew a cup of Yogi tea, just boil what you need. It’s a small act of care that adds up to something powerful. Join us in co-creating a future where we can all flourish.