Category: Influence

Better buses & trains – lobby for a sustainable transport policy

blue and white electric tram on an american street lined with red brick buildings

Why do we need sustainable public transport?

Road transport causes 11.9% of global greenhouse emissions[1], so developing sustainable public transport systems is essential if we are to prevent climate change.

While electric and (eventually) hydrogen-powered vehicles are better than petrol and diesel, they still encourage individual travel, which causes microplastic pollution from tyre wear and creates congestion. We need mass public transport systems that are fit for the future.

Imagine a public transport system that:

  • regularly connects all our villages and housing estates with town centres, employment areas and transport hubs
  • is affordable, maybe even free
  • is powered by renewable energy
  • is reliable
  • is regular enough that you can get rid of your car altogether and still get everything done

It could happen, with political will and significant investment, and it could create a lot of “green” jobs.

How can I help get a sustainable public transport system?

  • Write to your political representative asking for more routes, more frequent services and higher subsidies. (Feel free to use the text above to help compose your email.)
    While one letter won’t change anything, trust that your letter will eventually be one of thousands, evidence of a groundswell of public opinion that they can’t ignore.
  • Encourage other people to write as well.
  • Find out what bus services people in your area want, get actual numbers, and write to your local bus company asking for that route.
  • Set up or join a local on-demand bus service like HertsLynx, which allows anyone to travel anywhere they want to go in North & East Hertfordshire for very little cost.
  • Use it! Public transport routes are closing all the time because the government cut subsidies, so the routes aren’t profitable any more. Nearly-empty buses are loss-making, but full ones can still make a profit, so those routes stay open.
  • Encourage your teens to use the bus instead of Mum/Dad’s taxi service.
  • Encourage anyone with time on their hands to use the bus, to help keep the route open.
  • Find out if your local bus or train company has a user group and join it so you can influence local decision-making.

How can I contact my MP or political representative?

In the UK, you can find out who your MP is and how to contact them on They Work For You.

In the US, you can find out who your representative in Congress is here.

Reference:
[1] Ritchie, H., Roser, M. and Rosado, P. (2020) Emissions by sector. Our World in Data. Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector (Accessed: March 22, 2023).

Image credit: photo by Flor Nájera on Unsplash

Categories: All actions, High impact, Influence, Travel & commuting

Build a cycle route as part of every new development

Top 10 climate change actions - change how you travel

Why do we need new cycle routes?

Every new housing development brings thousands of new people to an area, and most of them will leave every day for work, school or household tasks. These activities add thousands of daily journeys to local roads, most of which are done in petrol or diesel cars, creating pollution at the local level and contributing to climate change globally.

Developers and landowners make millions from new edge-of-town developments, and councils quite rightly make them contribute significant amounts of money to help fund local infrastructure that will be stretched as a result of the new housing.

We think that, as part of planning permission, some of that money should be set aside to build cycle routes. The cycle routes should run from each new development to the centre of town, the bus station and the train station, and from the centre of town to the retail parks, industrial estates and business parks. This would effectively connect people to everything they need, reducing car use, reducing local and global pollution, and improving health.

How can I help get more cycle routes built?

  • Write to your local council and your political representative to demand that new developments are only granted planning permission if they add to the sustainability of the local transport system. While one letter won’t change anything, trust that your letter will eventually be one of thousands, evidence of a groundswell of public opinion that they can’t ignore
  • Encourage other people to write as well
  • Comment on planning applications for major developments
  • Encourage other people to comment too. Share the link to the planning application, your suggestion for a cycle path, and the reasons why, in relevant social media groups. (Feel free to use the wording above.)
  • To help promote cycle paths in your area and nationwide, join and support Sustrans. Sustrans delivers and manages the National Cycle Network, a UK-wide network of traffic-free paths connecting cities, towns and countryside

How can I contact my MP or political representative?

In the UK, you can find out who your MP is and how to contact them on They Work For You.

In the US, you can find out who your representative in Congress is here.

Image credit: photo by Mitchel Boot on Unsplash

Categories: All actions, Building, Influence, Travel & commuting

How to take climate action – take part in a school strike

children, young people taking part in a climate protest

What are school strikes?

School strikes, inspired by the action taken by Greta Thunberg, are a direct challenge to leadership (teachers, governments and parents). Students are absent from school, usually without permission, and instead go to a public place with placards explaining that they are on strike, and why.

The objective is to make the news, in order to:

  • remind the more complacent members of our society that climate change is a problem
  • remind other campaigners that they’re not alone
  • and make it harder for your government to continue with climate-damaging policies

Not to be taken lightly, school strikes have been proven to be a valuable attention-raising tool in the fight against climate change.

Should I take part in a school strike?

Whether or not to participate in a school strike is not an easy decision to make. It’s a direct challenge to the way things have always been done; you must balance the risk of damaging your education and future work prospects against the risk that your future (as previous generations have known it) is at stake.

Is it worth it? Perhaps it depends on where you are in your school career. If you are approaching your exams, you might take a different view of the risks compared to if you are at a less critical stage in your school career. At all stages, speak to your parents and teachers to explain, and ask the teachers if they would be prepared to send you a copy of the lesson materials so you don’t miss out. Students with good behaviour records, who can explain their actions in a reasoned way and collaborate with teachers to limit the disruption to their education will probably suffer less negative consequences than others might; but ultimately the school will have behaviour standards to uphold and you may well face punishment of some kind.

Ultimately it is a personal decision.

How can I make my school strike effective?

Ideally, do it on the same day as an organised protest to maximise your impact.

Make sure you do your preparation. Make effective, eye-catching placards, prepare your statement so you know what your demands are, prepare a press release and tell your local media so they can arrange to cover the strike.

On the day, take photos to prove it happened, and make sure you take some in landscape (wide) format as this works best on media websites. Of course, take photos and video and share them on TikTok and Instagram too (but you didn’t need us to tell you to do that, right?) You might not be on Facebook, but the audience you need to convince is, so get someone to post your media to Facebook too, and send them to your local newspaper.

How can I support school strikes responsibly?

Supporting school strikes as a student leader

If you are a student leader (e.g. a class representative, head of house, or head girl/boy) take advantage of your role and speak to the school’s senior leadership team. A well-argued case could change the whole school’s policy. Maybe a compromise could be reached, e.g. a lunchtime protest. This could still make the news – local newspapers are desperate for stories – so you will have achieved your objective of bringing the climate crisis to people’s attention, while not losing any study time.

Supporting school strikes as a teacher, governor or member of the school leadership team

If you are a teacher, a governor or a member of the school’s leadership team, talk to each other about whether the school policy should be to support strikes, and how the effect on learning could be minimised, while maximising the effectiveness of the strike. Pro-active leadership, demonstrating that you care about both the climate and education could be more effective than attempting to manage rebellion (particularly as those rebelling may well be your most caring, thoughtful and high-achieving pupils).

If you teach art, tech or graphic design, help your students design and create posters and placards.

If you teach English, media studies, or business studies, help your students prepare a press release and rehearse press interviews.

If you teach science, make sure your students understand the environmental chemistry and biology that’s relevant to their protest so they are well informed.

If you teach maths, help your students with any statistics they are interpreting or quoting so they don’t accidentally make false claims.

If you teach history, geography or sociology, teach your students about the historic and current inequities that have contributed to the unfair burden of climate change experienced by the global South; and strategies that go towards making that right, like targeted assistance for developing countries, and respecting indigenous rights.

Supporting school strikes as a parent

As a parent, talk to your child about school strikes, and how they could participate safely and avoid damage to their education. Help them to make good choices regarding which strikes to support and when.

Image credit: photo by Callum Shaw on Unsplash

Categories: All actions, Community & action, High impact, Influence

How to stop unnecessary flights – campaign for a frequent flyer tax

sad business people on plane

What is a frequent flyer tax?

A frequent flyer tax (also known as a frequent flyer levy) is an additional tax on people who take a lot of flights (or the businesses that make them take the flights). This makes the flights more expensive, which discourages unnecessary travel.

A frequent flier tax wouldn’t have any effect on people taking an occasional holiday or making infrequent trips to visit loved ones in other countries (although we would encourage you to think about taking more sustainable holidays instead of flying – see our travel page for ideas).

How would a frequent flyer tax help reduce emissions?

Flying is expected to be the biggest source of the UK’s emissions by 2050 [1], and just 15% of people are responsible for 70% of UK flights [2]. A frequent flyer tax could therefore significantly reduce emissions by discouraging a small-ish number of people (or the people who tell them what to do) from flying as often.

An important point is that the frequent flyer tax would need to be levied on businesses, not just individuals. That’s to prevent companies from avoiding the tax by sending a different person each time.

What can I do to help get a frequent flier tax introduced?

Lobby your political representative to introduce a frequent flyer tax. While one letter won’t change anything, trust that your letter will eventually be one of thousands, evidence of a change in public opinion that they can’t ignore.

Here are some useful facts from GreenWorld, the Green Party’s membership publication:

  • Introducing a frequent flyer tax would force frequent fliers to think more about their aerial carbon footprint and give them a financial incentive to lower it
  • Aviation contributes to about 2.5 per cent of global carbon emissions; this rises to 5% when all greenhouse gases, not just carbon, are taken into account
  • As more people reach the global middle class more people want to fly, so passenger numbers are expected to increase substantially in the coming decades
  • In the UK, just 15% of people take 70% of flights.
    1% of people in the UK are responsible for about 20% of flights!
    Meanwhile, more than half of the people in the UK don’t fly at all
  • The Green Party’s proposals would allow people to take one return flight a year, with no extra tax, so people could go on annual holidays and visit any family they may have abroad
  • Businesses and frequent fliers can and will have to adapt – trains can be used to get to Continental Europe instead of planes. Video conferencing can be done online. Longer stays at destinations can be arranged so multiple visits aren’t necessary
  • When properly explained, the public should be fully behind a frequent flyer tax because voters are keen on policies which follow well-established climate science but don’t make them change their own behaviour! 

How can I contact my MP or political representative?

In the UK, you can find out who your MP is and how to contact them on They Work For You.

In the US, you can find out who your representative in Congress is here.

[1] BBC News. 2019. Introduce frequent flyer levy to fight emissions, government told. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49808258> [Accessed 7 February 2021].

[2] Full Fact. 2016. Do 15% of people take 70% of flights?. [online] Available at: <https://fullfact.org/economy/do-15-people-take-70-flights/> [Accessed 7 February 2021].

Photo credit:  Hanson Lu on Unsplash

Categories: All actions, Free, High impact, Influence, Quick & easy, Travel & commuting

How to take climate action – use your vote!

I voted sticker

Actions taken by individuals are important but – let’s be honest – the effect is tiny compared to the impact of actions taken by governments.

We urgently need strong environmental action from our governments, so use your vote to support national and local politicians who put the environment at the heart of their economic and international policies.

Why should I bother to vote?

Many of our current politicians do not seem to care about climate breakdown at all – their promises are as empty as their pockets are full. Voting can feel pointless, particularly if you live in an area that votes overwhelmingly in the opposite direction to you.

But it’s always worth voting.

  • Even safe seats can be overturned, sometimes quite spectacularly
  • Winning parties will be keeping a close eye on the policies and popularity of their rivals
  • The incredibly close Brexit vote showed that literally, every vote counts
  • For women, our right to vote is comparatively recent and hard-won, and we have a duty to the campaigners who fought for our rights – particularly as the overturning of Roe-vs-Wade in the US has shown how easily women’s rights can be taken away
  • Our votes matter just as much in local elections, with the added benefit that you can often vote with your heart as well as your head and get a Green candidate elected

Don’t hold out for a perfect candidate – there isn’t one! Choose the one whose values and policies most closely match yours, because someone else is guaranteed to be voting for someone terrible, and at least your vote can cancel theirs out.

So, encourage everyone you know to use their vote – particularly younger people, who tend to be more progressive overall, but turn out to vote less than older people do. (The BBC states that in the UK 2015 general election, only 43% of 18-24-year-olds voted, compared with 78% of people aged 65 or over [1].)

Younger people’s failure to vote isn’t necessarily due to apathy. It could be because they aren’t sure how to register, or because they haven’t got the time to queue at a polling station while juggling work, children and/or study[2]. From 2023, it could also be because some younger people lack the forms of ID necessary to cast a vote in person. The rules on what ID is allowable discriminate against younger people, people who haven’t got passports or driving licences, and people who move addresses frequently, thereby giving an advantage to the party which is supported by more older voters (you know which party I mean).

How can I get more people to vote?

  • Talk to people, particularly young people, about the importance of voting. Fight apathy with recent examples of supposedly safe seats being overturned
  • Use your knowledge of the system, or your free time, to help people register to vote
  • Use your free time to help them actually vote (e.g. driving them to the polling station or babysitting)
  • Explain that there are new rules about voter ID from 2023, and ask them to make sure they have got the forms of ID necessary to cast a vote in person
  • For busy people, help them arrange a postal vote.
    Literally, everyone has time to vote by post
  • When people say all politicians are as bad as each other, list all the recent scandals you can find on the BBC news website in order of “badness”, and see which party comes up worse
  • Volunteer to support your local Green Party candidate (or whichever candidate they are stepping aside for)
  • Talk to your children about politics, sustainability and social justice
  • While they can’t actually vote yet, young people can register to vote from the age of 16 in England, and from the age of 14 in Scotland and Wales. Encourage/help them to register early, so they are ready if they are old enough to vote when the next election is called (remember, elections can often be called at short notice)

How do I register to vote?

In the UK, you can register to vote here.

When you’ve registered to vote, you can request a postal vote here.

Anyone can have a postal vote and you don’t need to give a reason.

In the US, you can find out how to register here:
Find out how to register (scroll down to the “States With Online Voter Registration” table)
Find out if you’re already registered.

And if you are a US citizen abroad, find out how to vote from overseas here. Please use your vote because the rest of the world really cares who’s in charge in the US, but has no influence over it!

Can I get a postal vote?

The short answer is YES – anyone who is registered to vote in the UK can get a postal vote, and you don’t have to give a reason.

Postal votes are great if you’re short of time, forgetful, or just don’t like queuing. It means last-minute problems can’t prevent you from casting your vote. And it’s super-useful for people who work full time, have kids to put to bed, have to prepare dinner, have limited mobility, have evening classes to attend, feel vulnerable walking at night, or just don’t like queuing in the rain… which is just about everyone.

I’ll say it again – in the UK, anyone who’s registered to vote can request a postal vote here. You don’t need to give a reason.

So the steps are:

  1. Start early
  2. If you plan to vote in person, make sure you have one of the accepted forms of voter ID
  3. Register to vote here
  4. When you’ve registered to vote, request a postal vote here
  5. Use your vote

In the US, some states automatically send mail-in ballots to everyone who’s registered to vote, but in other states, you have to request them. Find out what your state’s rules are here (scroll down to the “States With Online Voter Registration” table).

References:
[1] BBC News. (2020). Election 2017: If more young people actually voted, would it change everything? [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-39965925 [Accessed 8 Mar. 2020].

[2] BBC News. (2020). Why don’t more young people vote? [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51763333 [Accessed 8 Mar. 2020].

Photo credit:  Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Categories: All actions, Free, High impact, In Lockdown, Influence

How to get your favourite brands to stop using plastic

woman in green top with coffee and laptop in a cafe

Why should I ask my favourite brands to stop using plastic?

While plastic can be recycled, it often isn’t, leading to plastic pollution in oceans, rivers, and even our own bodies via the food chain. We need to stop producing and using single-use plastic items, except for where it’s absolutely necessary.

As individuals, we can make better purchasing decisions – but changes made by companies make it easy for everyone to go greener – whether they want to or not! 

So ask your favourite brands why they’re still using plastic in their products or packaging. A single change made by a company can have as much effect as thousands of their customers making the same choice.

Action:
Ask your favourite brands why they haven’t swapped to paper-based or plant-based wrappers for their products, or why they are still using plastic when they don’t need to.

How do I get companies to stop using plastic?

Start by emailing or tweeting and see what kind of answer you get. The company may be enthusiastic – they may already be doing something about it!

Twitter is a good place to put pressure on companies because they don’t like negative publicity. But however you do it, make sure you’ve got your facts right, and be polite – there’s a person at the other end. Feedback from customer services and the social media team can be a valuable mechanism for convincing management to make the change!

If you don’t get anywhere, see if someone else has already created a petition. Change.org and 38 Degrees are good places to start, or, to petition the government, use the UK government petitions site. If a petition already exists, support it by adding your name, writing to the petition target, or offering help to the petition owner.

If no one else is already running a campaign, you could start your own petition on Change.org or a similar site. But to give it the best chance of success, first, ask yourself if you’re committed to following it through. The most powerful petitions are started by people who are really committed and have the time to meet the petition target in the real world and work together for solutions – like the campaign we’ve highlighted below.

Finally, consider getting together with others to organise a boycott of the product or even protest at the organisation’s headquarters or sales outlets.

Cut the plastic – an inspiring example of a great eco campaign

Ella Daish’s campaign to encourage supermarkets to make all their menstrual products plastic-free is a great example of a successful campaign.

Ella was working as a postal worker when she noticed the amount of rubbish on her delivery route. First, she took steps to reduce the amount of waste she produced in her daily life; one of the changes she made was switching to eco-friendly period products. But no one else seemed to be aware of the problem.

She decided to take on the suppliers and started her campaign, on Change.org, in early 2018.

Ella’s petition, which calls on supermarkets and manufacturers to cut the plastic from their period products, now has more than 230,000 signatures. Ella met with decision-makers from Procter & Gamble, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Boots, Morrisons, Aldi, Kotex, Lil-lets, Carefree, Lidl, Bodyform, Asda, Superdrug and the Co-op, and the campaign featured in the national news and international magazines.

As a result of Ella’s campaign:

  • Sainsbury’s, Aldi, and Superdrug stopped producing plastic tampon applicators, which she says has prevented 17 tonnes of plastic from being produced annually
  • Eco-friendly ranges of tampons, pads and reusable products are now available in most supermarkets, giving customers a greater choice
  • Lil-Lets, Superdrug, and Morrisons developed and launched their own eco-friendly ranges

Photo credit: Adam Satria on Unsplash

Categories: High impact, Free, In Lockdown, Influence, Uncategorized, Waste

The problem with bee-killing pesticides – and how to help

bee on a yellow canola / rapeseed flower

Why are pesticides a problem?

Bees and other insects are essential to pollinate around one-third of the food crops we rely on – but bee populations are in decline due to the use of pesticides called neonicotinoids (neonics), habitat loss and disease.

Neonics were banned by the EU in April 2018, but, according to Greenpeace, at least 67 different emergency authorisations have been granted since that date. Many of these authorisations were granted repeatedly, or without any evidence of an ‘emergency’ situation being provided [1]. Neonic use has also been approved in the UK after Brexit, in certain emergency situations (although it was for a non-flowering crop).

Unfortunately, the next generation of pesticides are also believed to harm bees[2]. Indeed it’s hard to see how any future pesticides will be safe for bees and beneficial insects, given their physiological similarity to the insects the pesticides are intended to kill.

Legislators are under relentless pressure to approve pesticides that are known to cause the collapse of bee populations. This pressure comes from agrochemical giants like Bayer and Monsanto, whose business models are based on creating a reliance on their patented, proprietary seeds and pesticides.

How can I help end the use of bee-killing pesticides?

How can I contact my MP or political representative?

In the UK, you can find out who your MP is and how to contact them on They Work For You.

In the US, you can find out who your representative in Congress is here.

[1] Unearthed – Greenpeace. 2020. Loophole Keeps Bee-Killing Pesticides In Widespread Use, Two Years After EU Ban. [online] Available at: <https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2020/07/08/bees-neonicotinoids-bayer-syngenta-eu-ban-loophole/> [Accessed 25 January 2021].

[2] BBC News. 2018. New Pesticides ‘May Have Risks For Bees’. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45185261> [Accessed 25 January 2021].

Image credit: photo by Tsing Wang on Unsplash

Categories: All actions, Bees, insects & rewilding, Chemicals, Free, High impact, Influence, Quick & easy, Uncategorized

Make our roadsides better with bee-friendly wildflowers

poppies and blue wildflowers in a wildflower roadside verge

Why do we need bee-friendly roadside verges?

According to the wildlife charity Plantlife, 97% of the UK’s wildflower meadows have been lost since the 1930s[1]. This habitat loss is one of the reasons bees and other beneficial insects, which pollinate many of our crops, are in decline. The other reasons are pesticide use and disease.

Roadside verges are part of the solution. There are nearly 500,000 km (310,000 miles!) of roadside verges in the UK, and every year councils spend hundreds of thousands of pounds maintaining them[2].

New national guidance (developed by Plantlife together with national highways agencies, industry bodies, Natural England and other environmental groups) recommends that verges should only be cut twice a year, and never before July when most wildflowers are in bloom. Previously, verges were cut four or more times every year.

Less frequent cutting and avoiding pesticides allows verges to act as wildlife havens, helping to spread wildflowers, insects and invertebrates via a network of “corridors” across the country. If this recommendation was adopted throughout the UK, the grassland habitat created would be the same area as London, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and Edinburgh added together![2]

Write to your council about wildflower verges

Fortunately, many councils are keen to follow the example set by Dorset County Council, which estimates it has reduced the cost of verge maintenance by £100,000 in 5 years.[2]

It’s definitely worth contacting your council to encourage them to adopt the new national guidance. Councils are starved of cash and may well jump at the chance to reduce their costs.

Plantlife has written a sample letter, which you can use or adapt to help you write to your council. They also have a tool to help you find out which council you should be writing to, because it isn’t always obvious. Follow the link and scroll down to find the tool and sample letter.

[1] Plantlife. 2021. Real Action Needed To Save Our Vanishing Meadows. [online] Available at: <https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/about-us/news/real-action-needed-to-save-our-vanishing-meadows> [Accessed 25 January 2021].

[2] Barkham, P., 2021. UK Roadsides On Verge Of Becoming Wildlife Corridors, Say Experts. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/27/uk-roadsides-verge-wildlife-corridors-guidelines-wildflowers> [Accessed 25 January 2021].

Photo credit: Lucie Hošová on Unsplash

Categories: All actions, Bees, insects & rewilding, Free, High impact, Influence, Quick & easy

Eating better step 5 – choose a vegan diet

crispy vegan burger in a bun with salad and vegan cheese

Eating a vegan diet doesn’t have to mean a life of lentils. Seriously, just look at that burger. It’s from Vincent Vegan, Berlin. Yum!

Why go vegan?

Removing all animal products from your diet is the best way to reduce the huge environmental impact caused by commercial animal farming.

What is a vegan diet?

According to the Vegan Society, a vegan diet is based on:

  • fruit
  • vegetables
  • starchy foods e.g. oats, potato, bread, rice and noodles
  • proteins including peas, beans and lentils
  • healthy plant-based fats including omega-3 and omega-6
  • vitamins and minerals like calcium, iron, zinc, vitamins B12 and D, iodine and selenium

It means cutting out meat, dairy, eggs, and any other foods or additives that come from animals.

The good news is that there are so many easy-to-use alternatives to the foods we learned to cook with (and wrongly assumed were essential). For example, we regularly make vegan bread at home (using sunflower or olive oil instead of butter, and oat or almond milk instead of cow’s milk) and it is softer and just as tasty as bread made with a traditional recipe.

Moving towards a vegan diet

Going vegan is a low-risk, cheap, effective way to reduce your environmental impact, but it’s also quite hard – which is why we’re suggesting you get there in stages, particularly if you don’t know any other vegans to help you work out what you’re doing. There’s no shame in starting off as a part-time vegan (e.g. just at weekends, when you have more time to cook from scratch; or a weekday vegan, to make it easier to eat with friends at the weekend).

Any progress is good, and better than making things too hard for yourself and quitting.

Meat substitutes and vegan cheese can be expensive, but you can eat cheaply and healthily if you choose a good variety of vegetables, fruit, nuts and legumes (peas and beans), supplementing with essential nutrients like vitamin B12 and some types of omega-3 fatty acids.

We realise that veganism is a privilege, and that people who are on a very low income, are time-poor and/or don’t have access to adequate cooking facilities may find it difficult to eat well on a vegan diet. This is a political issue and one that you should write to your political representative and the heads of supermarkets about. If this is you, please just do what you can, even if that is just getting through the day.

Choose a vegan diet, but do it safely

This next bit is important; please read it.

Just as many Western diets lack vital nutrients, an unplanned vegan diet can lack some essential nutrients like vitamin B12 and some types of omega-3 fatty acids. If you are following a vegan diet, you need to know what you should be eating or doing to make up the shortfall.

So if you’re going vegan, make sure you read advice from responsible sources like the NHS, the Vegan Society or consult a qualified dietician.

Previous:
Step 4: go vegetarian

Photo credit: Paul Kapischka on Unsplash

Categories: All actions, Cheap, Food, High impact, Influence