Food choices

• Shop smart to cut your food waste and carbon emissions: plan meals and check what’s in your cupboards and fridge, make a shopping list and stick to it.
• Wasting food feeds climate change and costs you money, so eat what you buy. The Love Food Hate Waste Campaign has lots of great recipes and food hacks to whet your appetite!
• Eat less meat and consider switching to a plant-based diet to improve your heart health and cut your carbon emissions. Eating local, seasonal fresh food will reduce your carbon emissions from food even further.
• If you have a garden, get a compost bin. By composting your fruit and veg peelings you could reduce your waste by up to 10%. We have teamed up with Get Composting to help you buy a composter at a reduced price – find out more details.
• Support local food rescue initiatives like UK Harvest, who provide much-needed assistance to charities and vulnerable people, by collecting surplus food from all types of food providers, delivering it directly to charities.

The food we buy is a significant contributor to carbon output. For example, purchasing organic English tomatoes from a local greengrocer during the summer months is going to have a far lower footprint than tomatoes imported from South Africa. This is because of the carbon associated with its large-scale growing and harvesting, packaging and transportation.

And don't forget to add the carbon energy used to cook food as well. That's why using 100 per cent renewable electricity is also another simple way to help reduce your carbon footprint.