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Some Fact & Figures

A single individual changing to a plant-based diet reduces global CO2 emissions by 9lbs per day, or 1.5 tonnes per annum.

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A single individual eating a plant-based diet, just one day per week, would reduce global CO2 emissions by 471 lbs per annum.

Now apply the numbers to a workplace.

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Polling consistently demonstrates that 80% of people are prepared to eat plant based at least once per week to help save the planet. So assuming 80% uptake:

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If your workplace has 100 employees, their participation eating plant based once per week has the potential to influence reduction of global CO2 emissions by 37,680 lbs (17 tonnes) per annum.

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If your workplace has 1,000 employees, their participation eating plant based once per week has the potential to influence reduction of global CO2 emissions by 376,800 lbs (170 tonnes) per annum.

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If your workplace has 10,000 employees, their participation eating plant based once per week has the potential to influence reduction of global CO2 emissions by 3,768,000 lbs (1,708 tonnes) per annum.

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If your workplace has 50,000 employees, their participation eating plant based once per week has the potential to influence reduction of global CO2 emissions by 18,840,000 lbs (8,544 tonnes) per annum.

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If your workplace has 200,000 employees, their participation eating plant based once per week has the potential to influence reduction of global CO2 emissions by 75,360,000 lbs (34,176 tonnes)  per annum. 

Of course, not every business has a huge number of employees. But supposing  a number of employers in a business sector, who already have strong interest in sustainability initiatives, joined together to try to make a difference. For instance:

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Between them, HSBC, Citi, BNP Paribas and Bank of America (all of whom are part of the Sustainable Markets Initiative) have 840,165 employees. Using the same calculations, their participation eating plant based once per week has the potential to influence reduction of global CO2 emissions by 316,574,172 lbs (143,571 tonnes) per annum.

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If the founders of the Race To Zero (IKEA, Kingfisher, H&M, Walmart) initiative involved their 2,628,210 employees, their participation eating plant based once per week has the potential to influence reduction of global CO2 emissions by 990,309,528 lbs (449,119 tonnes)

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If all 8 employers combined to involve their staff, their participation eating plant based once per week has the potential to influence reduction of global CO2 emissions by 1,306,883,700 lbs (592,691 tonnes)

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Let that figure sink in.

 

Over HALF A MILLION tonnes of GWP gases saved, with the involvement of just 8 employers.

Now let's add another scenario.

 

Suppose that an employer like Carrefour, with a large customer base, decides to involve not only its 319,000 staff, but they also invite customers from the 104,000,000 households they serve globally, to commit to plant based eating, just once per week.

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Assuming they only manage to achieve a 50% uptake on commitment from these households, participation eating plant based once per week has the potential to influence reduction of global CO2 emissions by 24,612,119,200 lbs (11,161,995 tonnes)

But let's add a touch of realism to the figures. 

If one person in a household commits to eat plant based once per week, it is no stretch of the imagination that they will influence other members of that household. 

The number of household members varies considerably based upon geographic location, but we'll use a conservative average of 2.5 people, all of whom will eat the same as the individual making a commitment to eat plant based once per week. 

If we combined 80% the employees from all of the employers named above, there would be 3,029,900 employees involved with a combined household total of 7,574,750.

Now add in 52,000,000 Carrefour's customer households, each with 2.5 occupants, and we have a potential involvement of 137,574,750 people.   

Their participation eating plant based once per week, has the potential to influence reduction of global CO2 emissions by  64,797,707,250 lbs (29,386,715 tonnes)

TWENTY NINE MILLION tonnes!

And so far, we've only involved 9 employers, 80% of their staff and only one customer base, hich represents a mere 1.73% of the world's population.

Here are some final considerations that affect the numbers. 

If a person commits to eating plant based once per week, how hard a step is it for them to do it twice per week? Three times per week? Eat plant based all the time, if they can see the benefits and the impact their involvement brings?

Our figures utilise just 9 employers. How rapidly do you think an initiative like this could spread? 

People are influenced by their families, friends, colleagues and peer groups. What if those who participated were to directly or indirectly influence a percentage of their Dunbar's number (which currently stands at 150 people). Is it unreasonable to imagine that many would influence at least 10% of their group?

How long before that millions of tonnes saved becomes billions of tonnes?

It's so easy to achieve.

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