Company bans workers from claiming meat on expenses
A UK property development firm will decline any staff meal expenses that include meat, in a bid to reduce its environmental footprint.
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Igloo Regeneration will make all workshop catering, staff expenses and corporate entertaining vegetarian after the company passed an internal vote.
"We realised we needed the whole company to come on board, it couldn't just be imposed," development surveyor and head of the company’s value team Kate Marfleet told the BBC.
"We had some justifications as to why it was a good idea, mostly environmental. There were some reservations from staff, but most of those were based on them being unsure of the environmental impact."
She added that the policy will also be self-policed, and workers who can’t find a suitable vegetarian option due to health requirements like gluten free diets would be excused.
"And if you are somewhere where there is no vegetarian option, then obviously you shouldn't starve. Even if you decided you really wanted a bacon sandwich, then that's fine, but the company won't pay for it."
They’re not the only workplaces making similar moves: WeWork made waves in 2018 when it announced that it would no longer allow staff to expense meals which include red meat, poultry or pork, and that it would also no longer use meat in catering at staff events.
“New research indicates that avoiding meat is one of the biggest things an individual can do to reduce their personal environmental impact, even more than switching to a hybrid car,” WeWork co-founder Miguel McKelvey said at the time.
Does eating less meat matter?
Meat eating has “dire” consequences for the planet, a report published in the British medical journal The Lancet found recently.
That means that eating less meat and dairy is the best thing humans can do for the planet, another study led by Oxford University’s Joseph Poore found in 2018.
“A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use,” Poore said.
“It is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car.”
According to the Vegetarian Calculator, someone who went vegetarian for a year would have saved 1,609 pounds of CO2 and 202 animals’ lives.
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