(ReReRe) Lunch
(Impact) -6.250 KG CO2/year
(Date) 28.03.2022
(Author) Loudi Langelaan
(Illustration) Jelle van Bouwhorst

It’s high time for a climate-friendly company lunch.

Rethink
Our food production leaves a large ecological footprint. Animal products in particular cause extreme damage to the environment and climate.

About 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are being caused by livestock production, which is even more than the total emissions from transport. Two-thirds of all agricultural land worldwide is used for grazing livestock or the production of feed. Millions of acres of tropical rainforest are cut down to build soy plantations. Soy that we feed cows, pigs and chickens.

One pound of beef, for example, requires 25 pounds of feed — and 15.000 gallons of water. Quite inefficient. It would seem much more logical to eat plants, instead of first feeding it to animals and then eating those animals. Yet dairy is not a good alternative either: the climate impact of cheese is almost as great as that of meat.

Eating fish has resulted in overfishing which is causing great damage to our oceans. Farmed fish, just like the bio-industry, entails considerable health risks. Not to even get started on animal welfare in the fisheries.

But also the cultivation of vegetable food has an impact on the environment. The use of fertilisers, (chemical) pesticides and genetically modified crops exhausts the soil and causes a loss of biodiversity. And the fact that almost everything is available in the supermarket all year round means that our fruit and vegetables have to travel considerable distances.

Repurpose
High time for an environmentally friendly lunch at work. These meals consist of as many organic, local, plant-based ingredients, and as little packaging as possible. We also aim for less to zero food waste.

Redesign
We no longer opt for that 12 PM cheese sandwich. We have a logbook in which we pre-plan our (vegan or vegetarian) lunches, order the right amount of ingredients according to recipes to limit our food waste and get them delivered sustainably by an electric vehicle. Then we cook and have a warm meal all together.

When we do eat cheese, we eat consciously: as much local and organic products as possible. The Ekoplaza and the Marqt are around the corner from our new office, lucky! These organic supermarkets work with short chains and sell products with an organic label.

Instead of damaging the environment and climate with monoculture and the use of pesticides, organic agriculture works in harmony with nature.
This is good for our bodies, the soil, the water and the overall biodiversity.

Another great thing you can do for the environment is picking out seasonal fruits and vegetables. Voedingscentrum made a calendar to help you out. Basically, legumes like lentils, chickpeas and beans are sustainable crops: they take nitrogen from the atmosphere and return it to the soil, requiring less or no fertiliser and enriching the soil rather than impoverishing it. So you can stock up on those any season!

#rerere is our action program to rethink, repurpose and redesign our social and ecological footprint for the better. you can find all our #rereres here. We hope that it inspires you to take action. Because the only way to create a future that includes you plus new generations to come is when we all take action. #timeisup