Throw a dog a bean: how to reduce the carbon footprint of your pets

Thinking about what your dog or cat eats and the products you buy for them can lessen the impact they have on the planet

Did you hear the one about the luxury aviation CEO who claims pets cause as much carbon pollution as private jets?

That’s what the Luxaviation chief executive, Patrick Hansen, told the Business of Luxury summit in Monaco earlier this year, citing calculations that estimated an average-sized dog produces 770kg of CO₂-equivalent emissions per year.

Hansen’s theory? One of his company’s customers produces about 2.1 tonnes of CO₂ a year – the equivalent of owning three dogs.

While animal lovers were quick to denounce the high-flyer for using pets to defend his industry’s carbon emissions, his words shone a spotlight on a rarely spoken reality of pet ownership.

“Just about everything we do in life has an environmental footprint … [so] we need to be conscious of the impact pet ownership can have,” says veterinarian Dr Elise Anderson, a project lead with Vets for Climate Action. “That will vary depending on the type and number of pets people have [but] it’s certainly something we need to take into consideration.”

Here are some expert tips for lessening the impact your pet has on the planet.

Size does matter

Anderson has a simple response for people who scoff at the notion that bigger pets take a bigger toll on the planet.

“It’s no different to the type of car you drive,” she says. Just as people might consider an electric vehicle or smaller car, they “should start to think similarly about the size of their pets”.

“I’m never going to say don’t have a pet – they bring so many amazing benefits to our lives – but I made a very deliberate choice to choose a pet that had a low carbon footprint.”

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