Vegan Campaigns LogoTo get to an event 100 miles from our home base at Nottingham’s Sumac Centre, (and back), Veggies will emit 120kg CO2.

However by helping each 100 people Eat Vegan we will “offset” 200 kg CO2

If ONE customer goes Vegan For Life, they will save 1.5 tonnes CO2 every year, as well as saving 4022 animals’ lives(ref:Viva!), and enabling all the world’s peoples to receive a Fair Share of the world’s resources.

We  have a sustainable travel policy to favour events within a reducing radius of our Nottingham base. To address the urgency of the climate crisis we have halved the default radius to 40 miles, beyond which we will weight up critically the pros & cons of the journey.  For many years, during the 80’s & 90’s, we the only vegan caterer and therefore called upon to travel all over the UK. The growth of vegan catering companies has now enabled us to compile a  mapped directory of 400 other vegan & vegetarian caterers at https://www.veggiecatering.org.uk/ that we use to recommend caterers for events beyond our local region.

 

HOW ARE WE DOING?

If we have helped you to change your diet please let us know.

The mapping facility on Veggies Website Diary links public transport options for many events, and ‘get directions‘ facility at Multimap calculates the CO2 emissions for your journey.

Read more from our archive about Petrol & Diesel and bio-diesel blog

See also our Climate Change Campaigns page


 

Footprint Calculators Promote Steps Towards Meatlessness

Our environmental footprint is one way to measure our impact on the environment.
There are now many online footprint calculators that include meat consumption as one factor in calculating our environmental impact.

Here are several (some are more fun than others):

Another useful resource is the “Challenge your eco-footprint” published by BillerudKorsnäs. This resource is an interactive tool that highlights the importance of being more mindful when throwing away certain waste items. Displayed in the resource is a digital representation of how long it takes for waste items to decompose. I believe this would be a helpful reference for your community to refer to as it urges people to reduce their plastic use and to reuse and recycle items when possible.

https://www.billerudkorsnas.com/about-us/billerudkorsnas-stories/all/story-page-challenge-your-eco-footprint
Interestingly this shows the value of our ‘minimal packaging policy which has, since 1984, favoured the use of a simply paper napkin for ‘packaging’ our vegan burgers, samosas, cake etc., which is shown to decompose (in our compost heap) in 2-4 weeks.

Vegetable Oil – A Vegan Fuel Solution?

The global livestock industry makes a greater contribution to global warming than transport, however transport emissions should still be minimised.

As well as reducing distances travelled, as part of a calorie controlled transport diet, vehicles can run on waste or locally produced vegetable oil.

For more discussion of this, andther good reasons for using vegetable oil, see Veggie Power: Vegetable Oil – A Vegan Fuel Solution?

Veggie Power, (a vegan business), can sell you a kit or convert your vehicle to run on (waste) vegetable oil for you. See www.veggiepower.co.uk


Estimate statistics and references:

  • Diesel fuel: 2.68kg CO2/litre; 4-5mls/ltr (50-70k/100ml)(LILO Handbook)
  • Cooking gas: Butane: 1.74kg CO2/kg; Propane:1.95kg CO2/kg (as above).
  • 1.5 tonnes CO2 saved annually by a vegan diet (4kg/person/day) (New Scientist);
  • Livestock industry produces 100 million tonnes methane each year (FAO, as below)
  • Methane is 23 times more harmful to the climate than C02 (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization).
  • 1 hectare typically produces 1,400kg of oil and 1,900kg of cake for animal feed (United Oilseeds).
  • 1,400kg of oil when converted to Rape Methyl Ester would allow a car to travel approx 26,500 kilometres (as above). ‘Straight veg oil’ requires no conversion.
  • Could meat be murder for the environment (New Scientist):

    “A kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on back home.

    “This is among the conclusions of a study by Akifumi Ogino of the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Tsukuba, Japan, and colleagues, which has assessed the effects of beef production on global warming, water acidification and eutrophication, and energy consumption.

    “Their analysis showed that producing a kilogram of beef leads to the emission of greenhouse gases with a warming potential equivalent to 36.4 kilograms of carbon dioxide. It also releases fertilising compounds equivalent to 340 grams of sulphur dioxide and 59 grams of phosphate, and consumes 169 megajoules of energy. In other words, a kilogram of beef is responsible for the equivalent of the amount of CO2 emitted by the average European car every 250 kilometres, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days.

Read more at http://www.veggies.org.uk/climate

Different sources quote methane as 21 or 23 time more potent than CO2.

A google search (Nov’07) gives 198,000 references for “methane 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide” – against 194,000 for 23% – so there’s not much in it.

However the closest I can find to the source of the issue is the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s own press release at http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html which uses the 23% figure.

Confusingly the Climate Change Division of the US Environmental Protection Agency uses the 21% figure at http://www.epa.gov/methane/scientific.html

According to the calculator at http://www.climatecare.org/ driving a diesel vehicle 10,000 per year at 20mpg would give emissions 5.95 tonnes. The cost to offset this CO2 with Carbon Care would be be £44.63 – this is not enough! Carbon emissions are too critical to pay off this cheaply. The concept of Carbon Offsetting allows people to think that they can fly or drive guilt-free, rather than taking steps to reduce their emissions. However let’s hope that our work helps and encourages just 4 people to Go Vegan each year. This alone would save this amount of CO2 emissions. The challenge for us is to travel less, whilst still giving the support for people to adopt a climate-friendly vegan diet.

Veggies Climate Change Campaigns

Go Vegan logo

http://www.veggies.org.uk/climate