Ripple’s milk products, made from yellow split peas, have a lower environmental impact and more health benefits than dairy and other non-dairy alternatives.

Ripple has developed a non-dairy milk made from yellow split peas. The peas they use are grown in areas with heavy rainfall, reducing the need for irrigation, and are non-GMO certified. In addition, their packaging is made from 100% recycled materials, and are also recyclable after use.

Although there are other dairy alternatives available on the market that address some of the environmental and ethical concerns associated with cow milk, many of them have their own drawbacks too. Nut milks for example have a huge water footprint, there are concerns over the use of GMOs often found in soy milks, and oat milks typically contain high sugar levels.

Ripple have tried to account for these challenges. Their pea milk has one hundredth of the water footprint of almond milk. What’s more, and produces one fifth of the CO2 emissions. Compared with other milks, pea milk also has less sugar, less saturated fat, more protein, and more vitamins like calcium and vitamin D.

Why you should care

The dairy industry is responsible for approximately 4% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions, much of which is methane and nitrous oxide, whose climate impact is more than 100 times that of CO2.  Dairy alternatives like pea milk require fewer inputs and produce less greenhouse gas emissions.

How the Global Goals are addressed

Clean water and sanitation
Pea milk requires less water to produce than dairy milk and nut-based alternatives, helping to conserve scarce water resources.

Climate action
Ripple’s product has a lower carbon footprint than other plant-based milks, largely because legumes require less nitrogen based fertilisers and irrigation water.

Life on land
Livestock is one of the major causes of deforestation: directly for grazing space; and indirectly for growing feed crops. Plant-based milks can be far less land intensive than the animal alternatives.