Lower your impact
Our best tips to lower the climate impact of your diet
Our 3 best tips!
Although as a normal consumer it sometimes seems impossible to influence the climate, we do think this is possible! With your own choices, you can inspire others and in this way you can ultimately start to influence farmers, producers, supermarkets and politics.
But what should you then do to lower your impact?
The largest gains can be achieved by choosing the right diet. Use our Footprint Finder to find foods and melas with a low climate impact. And check out the tips we’ve outlined on this page.
Most tips are focused on reducing the CO2eq emissions from food, because this has the most direct influence on the climate.
1. Eat more vegetarian/ vegan
As a consumer, you can reduce your CO2 emissions the most with a more vegetarian or vegan diet. As can also be seen on this page , meat and dairy products have by far the highest CO2 emissions in the Netherlands. In total, meat and dairy products are responsible for more than 80% of the total greenhouse gas emissions from food in the Netherlands. On our meal pages we give you the best tips to replace your animal-based products with more sustainable options!
2. Waste as little food as possible
Unnecessary food waste is responsible for 6% of total greenhouse gas emissions (Source: OurWorldinData). To put this in perspective, this is approximately 3x the total emissions from air travel. So there is a great deal to be gained here. Some tips: save your leftovers, plan your meals, do not just throw away products that are a few days past their date and do not eat more than necessary
Read more here about the influence of food waste and overconsumption on the climate.
3. Avoid air-freighted foods
While transportation has a relatively small impact on the total share of emissions for most foods (about 10%), this is absolutely not the case for products that are shipped by plane. The emissions of air-freighted foods can be 50 times higher than that of boat freighted products.
Air-freighted foods are usually foods that are highly perishable. Certain fruits and vegetables often fall into this category, such raspberries and grapes. As a general rule, avoid foods that have a very short shelf life and have traveled a long way (many labels state the country of “origin”).
Extra tips
Eet local foods
Locally produced food causes fewer emissions due to the shorter transport process. The production of food products in the Netherlands is also very efficient.
Eat healthy
In general, fruits and vegetables have a lower impact on the environment than unhealthy options such as sweets and snacks (Source: Voedingscentrum).
Drink smart
As seen can be seen in our Foodprint Finder , certain drinks are way better for the environment than others. Water, tea, coffee, and soft drinks are good choices. Other drinks such as juice or alcohol are more harmful to the environment.
Eat seasonal foods
Eating seasonal fruit and vegetables leads to less climate impact due to shorter transport, less stressful production process and shorter storage.