Veganuary and Beyond: Practical Tips for Sustainable Eating

With Veganuary in full swing, January is a fantastic opportunity to pause and reflect on the environmental impact of our food.

Food processes (i.e. how our food is grown, processed, transported, cooked, consumed and disposed of) account for around a third of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and can influence our health and wellbeing [1]. This makes our food choices some of the most powerful everyday choices we can make.

If you’d like to explore the environmental impact of your own dietary habits, or your ‘foodprint’, here’s a fun, quick and easy quiz: What is Your Foodprint? - Quiz - FoodPrint.

Tips to Eat More Sustainably

Below are some practical ways to eat more sustainably and improve your foodprint. Adopting just one or two can have benefits for both your wellbeing and that of our planet.

• Reduce meat and dairy intake

Farming animals for food has a substantial environmental footprint, with some products – such as beef, prawns and cheese – having a higher overall impact than many plant based foods [2].

The good news is plant-based foods have a much lower environmental impact [3]. For this reason, eating mostly plant-based foods - whether by taking part in Veganuary, choosing vegan meals more often, or simply reducing meat and dairy intake - is one of the most effective ways to reduce your foodprint. Reducing your meat intake to three times per week could save the equivalent emissions of six short-haul return flights… each year [4].

• Choose Seasonal Fruit and Vegetables

If you’ve been following the Green Impact Team’s Seasonal Fruit and Vegetable blogs, you may already be familiar with the benefits of eating seasonally. Seasonal produce generally requires less energy for heating, lighting, and long-distance transport, and choosing it can also support local growers, reduce food costs, and boost overall wellbeing.

January is a great time to enjoy leeks, carrots, cabbage, kale, parsnips, apples and pears. Why not try out these seasonal recipe ideas: What’s in season – January | Good Food.

•  Reduce Food Waste

Around 30% of all food produced globally is wasted. Did you know, if food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, after China and the USA [5]?

Reducing household food waste is one of the simplest ways to lower your foodprint, and save yourself some money. A few easy ways to get started include:

• Buying only what you need (meal planning, shopping lists, and buying loose items can help)
• Freezing leftovers or extra food
• Making soups, stocks or smoothies from wilting veggies or overripe fruit
• Using food waste bins

• Be Mindful of Packaging and Recycling

Packaging waste also contributes to environmental pollution, but everyday choices around how we shop, reuse items, and recycle can make a real difference. Why not try:

• Choosing foods with no, less or recyclable packaging
• Using reusable shopping bags, bottles, and containers
• Supporting retailers and brands that are exploring alternatives to plastic packaging
• Rinsing food containers before recycling to reduce contamination (otherwise an entire batch could end up in landfill!)
• Checking your local council’s guidance on what can be recycled, for example Oxford County Council’s page: What goes in each bin or sack – Oxford City Council

For sustainable eating tips, see WWF’S eight tips for eating for the planet: Eight tips to eat more sustainably | WWF

Sustainable eating doesn’t have to mean changing everything at once. Small, everyday choices can really add up — especially when we share ideas at work, at home, or with friends. Why not start a conversation and see what others are trying this month?

References

[1] Crippa, M., Solazzo, E., Guizzardi, D. et al. Food systems are responsible for a third of global anthropogenic GHG emissions. Nat Food 2, 198–209 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00225-9

[2] M. Clark, M. Springmann, M. Rayner, P. Scarborough, J. Hill, D. Tilman, J.I. Macdiarmid, J. Fanzo, L. Bandy, & R.A. Harrington, Estimating the environmental impacts of 57,000 food products, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 119 (33) e2120584119, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2120584119 (2022).

[3] Xu, X., Sharma, P., Shu, S., Lin, T. S., Ciais, P., Tubiello, F. N., Smith, P., Campbell, N., & Jain, A. K. (2021). Global greenhouse gas emissions from animal-based foods are twice those of plant-based foods. Nature Food, 2(9), 724–732. www.doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00358-x

[4] F. Steinitz, N. Johnson, I. Staffell, From hamburgers to holidays: Modelling the climate change impact of reducing meat consumption according to UK consumer preferences, Current Research in Environmental Sustainability, Volume 7, 2024, 100249, ISSN 2666-0490, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crsust.2024.100249

[5] World Food Program. (2022). How reducing food waste can help end world hunger. World Food Program USA. www.wfpusa.org/articles/how-food-waste-affects-world-hunger/