I've found a more environment-friendly way of having fizzy drinks - worried about my husband's expensive fizzy water habit, I bought a home carbonator - you fill a (reusable PET) bottle with tap water, screw it into the table-top machine and a few presses of the button later, have fizzy water. The CO2 canister is sent back to be refilled when it's emptied (which will only be about 1X a year for us). The company also sells sachets of flavorings, which you mix into the carbonated water to get the soda of your choice. It's already saved me a ton of money, not to mention kept a lot of plastic bottles out of the recycling bin. And hopefully reduced my carbon footprint too.

I would think fountain drinks would have a smaller impact. As in the above suggestion, the water is carbonated on site (reducing tranport needs), and there is much less packaging (canisters of carbonation and of soda syrup).
Certain convenience stores offer the ability to refill, so you can reuse a container of your own. Another option is limiting yourself to restaurants that use reusable glasses.

Thanks for answering my question!!! Ironically, I finally took the plunge and gave up drinking anything but water 6 days ago. I can't tell you how bad my head HURT the first three days. I'm starting to feel human again and am loving the fact that I don't have to empty my recycling every three days.
Jon
PS- I'm embarrased to admit that by "several" pops a day I meant five or more. Holy cow!

Are the impacts similar for club soda in aluminum cans? I switched from imported fizzy water (mainly from Italy) to club soda. I believe in terms of carbon footprint that this must be an improvement as the club soda is produced in Canada using our own water supplies and I believe the Ontario recycled aluminum industry is alive and well. Not crossing the ocean has got to be an improvement.

But... is the production of club soda as water-intensive as the representative example Umbra uses for soda?

What other negative environmental impacts might my club soda drinking entail?

you can find seltzer bottles/soda siphons for under 40$, and the chargers run ~50¢.

Similar to the logic behind much conversation about â€oemiles” and â€oefootprints” hereâ€TMs another way of viewing the consumption of diet sodas.  According to Ernest Schusky, an anthropologist and author of Culture and Agriculture: An Ecological Introduction to Traditional and Modern Farming Systems, it takes "approximately 2,200 calories of energy to produce a single can of diet soda.”      

- cited in â€oeMeeting the Agricultural Challenges of the 21st Century With a Little Help From Liberty Hyde Bailey” by Fred Kirschenmann, Distinguished Fellow, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University.

I apologize, this is a correction to a comment I posted earlier On Miles and Footprints.  Besides the formatting issues, I left out the kicker - and am rightfully ashamed!    

While I'm at it, here's a more fitting title -thanks!

On Carbon Footprints and Energy Consumption...

Similar to the logic behind much conversation about "miles" or "footprints" here's an interesting fact I recently learned in regards to diet drinks.  

According to Ernest Schusky, an anthropologist and author of "Culture and Agriculture: An Ecological Introduction to Traditional and Modern Farming Systems, it takes "approximately 2,200 calories of energy to produce a 12-ounce can of diet soda" consisting of just 'one' calorie.*  

22,000 calories in to get 1 calorie out - our bodies only require 2,500 per day on average to function properly (there's a twisted irony in that too).  

I can't help but think about what the amount of calories I use per day means in sustainable terms.  

*cited in "Meeting the Agricultural Challenges of the 21st Century With a Little Help From Liberty Hyde Bailey" by Fred Kirschenmann, Distinguished Fellow, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, 2007.

I know that at least some of the CO2 in the soda is sourced from ammonia production facilities (where CO2 is a byproduct).  This means that the CO2 is a made from natural gas (and I feel certain that the majority of the CO2 is produced from natural gas or petroleum). This means that drinking soda and burping out that CO2 is not a whole lot different than combusting the petroleum product.

But (wo)man does not live by water alone... so although it's not carbonated, I have to put in a plug for my favorite soft drink - iced tea.  Ok, I know tea has to be imported, but a little goes a long way.  I bought a 12 cup coffee carafe, and fill it with boiling tap water and a few tea bags.  After steeping, stir in a spoonful of organic sugar and pop it in the fridge.  It's there cold and thirst-quenching when I get home from work, it's cheap, and tea is even touted to have antioxidant benefits. You can even compost the used bags!

I was so excited to see the Q&A about the life cycle assessment of sodas. I had no idea the Carnegie Design Team's interactive tool existed online. So with my tail wagging, I visited their site and...well...I'm confused. How do the "total econ $" translate into Co2 outputs? The tutorial or help site didn't help me any. Is there someone who can explain this me?

Thnx!

I'm excited to have found out about the Life Cycle Assessment tool from the folks over at Carnegie. But I'm confused as to how the economic dollars translate into CO2 emissions. Thanks in advance to anyone who can clear this up for me..