Is There An Environmental Case For Veganuary?

As January rolls around, it’s that time again when everyone questions their life choices, reflects on the excesses of Christmas, and wonders if throwing more money at fitness will magically make them stick to their New Year’s exercise goals. It’s also the month of Veganuary, if the wordplay escapes you, adding 'read more books' to your resolutions might be a good idea.

The Veganuary initiative aims to encourage people and businesses to move to a plant-based diet in order to protect the environment, animals, and encourage healthy eating. They campaign for more vegan products and menu options. It was started by Matthew Glover and his wife, Jane Land in 2014 after taking inspiration from the effectiveness of campaigns such as Movember.

In 2024, over 115 companies joined the Workplace Challenge in the UK. which sees employers encourage their teams to explore plant-based eating. By joining this challenge, companies can improve team morale, promote health and wellbeing among staff and demonstrate their environmental commitments. National Trust members recently voted in favour of making menus 50% plant-based across its sites, Lidl is aiming for plant-based items to account for 25% of its total protein sales by 2030, and IKEA has pledged to make 50% of its restaurant main meals plant-based by 2025.

Meat production has increased substantially over the last 50 years, the graph below provides a snapshot of this. Many cultures have long eaten predominantly plant based diets, for instance Hinduism and Buddhism, promote the concept of non-violence to all beings and hence in countries with large Hindu and Buddhist populations diets don’t revolve around meat. India alone, has 400 million vegetarians. To give some context, in the UK around 1.5% of the population is vegan whilst in India the figure sits around 10%. 

So why does Meat production, and consumption, matter from a Sustainability angle? Well, beef especially has very high emissions, the next graph breaks down the emissions of a variety of different foods.

There is an argument that eating locally is another way to be more environmentally friendly because of reduced transport costs. However, it has been found that transport and food processing tend to make up only around 5% of the total emissions from meat, and therefore eating local whilst good in many ways for farmers, the local economy, and supporting British produce is not necessarily the most environmentally effective action. Bottom line, the more meat we eat the more emissions we produce. 

All over the internet, from supermarkets, to newspapers, to restaurants, everyone has something to say. Recipes are abundant, tips are there if you want them, and should you wish for a vegan Wagamamas your wish has been granted. 

Ultimately the value of initiatives such as Veganuary, is that they remind us to check ourselves and our habits as we enter a new year. Even if you don’t fully cut out animal products, perhaps a recipe or idea inspires you to reduce your meat consumption by just one meal a week. 

Leave a comment below and tell us if you are making any sustainability changes in 2025!