The Climatarian Challenge

Address climate change through diet change with The Climatarian Challenge.

Welcome to The Climatarian Challenge. We challenge you to eat in a carbon-conscious way, what we call the climatarian way, for 30 days.

You will start the month with a budget of 8000 carbon points which is equivalent to 80 kilograms of carbon.* Each time you eat breakfast, lunch or dinner all you need to do is open The Climatarian Challenge app and record the type of meat the meal contained and the approximate serving size of the portion of meat in the meal.

The app will calculate the carbon footprint of your meal and subtract it from your budget. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to finish the month with carbon points to spare.

To get started all you need to do is:

1. Download and install the app

2. Register either using your email and password or via the Facebook connect feature

3. Watch the app tour video to familiarise yourself with the app

4. That’s it - you’re ready to go! Get your friends and family involved in this delicious journey.

Hint - beef has the biggest carbon footprint of all, you’ll see!

Why take the challenge?

Because no matter how ambitious we are in our transition away from coal, oil and gas towards renewable energy, there’s no way we can limit climate change to safe levels unless we curb our consumption of red meat, and in particular, beef, to healthy levels.

This is largely due to the growing middle class around the world and in particular, Asia, adopting our meat-heavy western diet. Hence what we can do is shift the western diet towards one that is sustainable, healthy and most importantly, delicious!

If we can all cut back our consumption of beef and lamb down to once a week for a standard serving size (65g) or once a month for a large portion such as a roast or steak then we can actually limit climate change to what climate scientists consider safe levels.

In addition, you’ll be helping to make a change that is both healthy for your body and your mind. By thinking about the impact of what you eat (and actually calculating it before if you like) instead of eating only for flavour we think that you will find the food more fulfilling.

Furthermore, the old idiom of ‘absence making the heart grow fonder’ can just as easily be applied to food. When we haven’t eaten something for a while we anticipate it more and find the experience far more enjoyable and delicious in the end.

This sounds too easy, like changing light bulbs, but that is what the climate models used by world leaders tell us and hence what we are telling you. So be part of the solution, take part in The Climatarian Challenge and become a climatarian! :-)

If you have any other questions about The Climatarian Challenge either now or while taking the challenge (anytime really - we are open for business 24/7) then please visit The Climatarian Challenge FAQ page and feel free to drop us a line via the contact us form.

Good luck aspiring climatarians!

* The ultimate goal: compatible with a safe climate, limiting warming to below 2 degrees is 40 kilograms of carbon per person per month, as per the ‘low meat’ pathway developed by Chatham House for The Global Calculator climate model, but we all have to start from somewhere. :-)