Low-Carbon Ecological Tea: The Key to Transforming the Tea Industry towards Sustainability

The realization of the value of ecological products has led to an economic means for reducing carbon emissions in China. Tea is one of the most important cash crops and one of the most popular beverages in the world. Due to the complex the tea industrial chain, it is considered to be an industry with high carbon emissions. Ecological tea products with low-carbon attributes can be considered a linkage of ecology, economy, and society. Based on this, this paper presents research on low-carbon ecological tea (LCT). Herein, we construct the formational logic of low-carbon ecological products, explore the connotations of LCT, and form a conceptual pathway for realizing LCT to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation. This paper starts from the upstream, midstream, and downstream of the industrial chain; it establishes three value realization pathways that keep, as a priority, the promotion of ecological industrialization, focus on restoration to improve the ecology of the industrial chain, and innovate technology to expand the industrial chain. The pathways are a set of low-emission production solutions that use techniques to enhance carbon sequestration in soil, reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides, and help shift to clean energy from low-emission sources in the stages of plantation, processing, and distribution. In the process of realizing LCT, the government plays an important role, and its support and guidance are needed. Based on stakeholder theory, this paper builds an implementation mechanism that focuses on the micro perspective (users, organizations), integrates the mesoscopic perspective (industry), and relies on the macro perspective (government).