Ah, Summer. Whether you believe in climate change or not, we can all agree that it is HOT outside. On a scolding summer day, nothing sounds more refreshing to me than a cold scoop of ice cream. Afterall, who doesn’t like ice cream? It’s creamy, rich, and comes in so many interesting flavors! What’s not to like? Well, I sadly found the answer to that.

As many of us know, one of the largest contributors to climate change are greenhouse gas emissions. Dairy cows actually add a substantial amount of greenhouse gases to our atmosphere by producing large amounts of methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide. If that wasn’t enough, dairy operations also pollute our local waterways through manure and fertilizer runoff. Additionally, dairy farms are very resource intensive in that they require large plots of land for their animals and the feed crops to feed cows such as alfalfa and corn. While there are several other effects the dairy industry has on the environment, one of the most alarming to hear was its water footprint. It makes sense though, the industry requires large amounts of water in order to grow the crops to feed their cows, to hydrate the cows and to clean the facility. Did you know that one scoop of ice cream requires around 42 gallons of water to produce it?

So, what do we do when we want a scoop but not the ‘poop’ that comes with it? The answer might be vegan ice cream.

After all, one glass of soy milk has a water footprint of 9 gallons compared to milk which requires 30 gallons of water. Additionally, dairy-free ice cream generally is lower in calories and little to no cholesterol. Now, I know what you’re thinking,

Well, today I put vegan ice cream on the “chopping block” to determine find the best environmentally friendly ice cream alternatives while it still tasting ridiculously delicious. The criteria in which I base these reviews on are:

1. Where is the ice cream coming from? Are the ingredients local/in-season?
2. What values and practices does the company have in terms of sustainability?
3. How much is it? Is it worth its value?
4. And of course, is it delicious*?

*delicious is a completely subjective term that differs between individuals. My coworkers at the Office of Sustainability were chosen as a sample size to taste the ice cream. They rated their overall experience from 1-10 (1 = bad, 10 = best), noted their favorite and least favorite parts of the product, determined if it reminded them of dairy ice cream, and if they would eat it again.

Note that various companies sent us vegan ice cream free of charge to our office however, please note that our reviews are 100% honest.

Stay tuned for this delicious weekly blog series next week on…by Chloe!