- This week Lewis Hamilton is helping Mercedes go vegan.
Rooney Mara goes undercover at a factory farm.
And Greta Thunberg is named Times 2019 Person of the Year.
All this and more on Livekindly's Weekly Vegan News.
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Vegan climate change activist Greta Thunberg
is Times 2019 Person of the Year.
She told the magazine, "we can't just continue
living as if there was no tomorrow.
Because there is a tomorrow.
That is all we are saying."
Thunberg spoke before the 25th United Nations
Climate Conference COP25, damning countries for
negotiating loopholes instead of meeting the goals
to limit carbon emissions under the Paris Agreement.
- The real danger is when politicians and CEO's
are making it look like real action is happening
when, in fact, almost nothing is being done,
apart from clever accounting and creative PR.
- The 16 year old's journey to becoming one of the most
prolific voices for climate change began with
skipping school on Friday's in August 2018.
Instead of attending class, Thunberg sat outside the
Swedish Parliament holding a white sign
with painted black letters that read,
"school strike for climate."
Her actions sparked Friday's for Future,
a global youth-led environmental movement.
On September 20th, the world's largest environmental
strike took place on a Friday.
In cities across the globe, the streets were lined
with young people skipping school to send a message.
Thunberg's first book, No One is Too Small
to Make a Difference, was published earlier this year.
McDonalds UK is launching it's first fully Vegan Happy Meal.
Last year, the fast food chain released
vegetarian red pepper and pesto goujon's that could not
be labeled vegan due to a preparation space
shared with animal products.
The new vegan veggie dippers are produced with the same
plant-based tomato pesto, red pepper, rice and split-peas
but are prepped in a designated area.
The new McDonald's Veggie Dippers Happy Meal
has been granted full Vegan Society accreditation.
"In the last 12 months we've seen an 80% uplift
in customers ordering vegetarian options at McDonald's,"
said Thomas O'Neil, head of Food Marketing
at McDonald's UK in Ireland.
So it's time for the brand famous for dippable
McNuggets to launch a dippable option for our vegetarian,
vegan and flexitarian customers.
Vegan actor, Rooney Mara, went undercover
to investigate factory farm conditions in England.
Mara described the experience as devastating.
Animal rights organization Animal Equality
released an eight minute documentary about
her visit called "With My Own Eyes."
She said that she was motivated to go undercover
after watching footage from a pig farm.
The short film shows a 34-year-old actor walking around
facilities in the middle of the night.
Mara visited one farm that kept more than 3,000 pigs,
whilst another had approximately 50,000 chickens.
She described the conditions as
'more awful than you can even imagine.'
On one farm, Mara witnessed mother pigs
kept in small cages known as sow stalls.
Sow stalls confine pregnant pigs for six to sixteen weeks.
The stalls are so small that pigs
cannot turn around at all.
They must stand and sleep where they defecate.
- Nothing really prepares you for seeing it in person.
You know, it's really just...
It's so much more awful than you can even imagine.
You know, I just kept thinking about my sister
who just had a baby and just thinking about,
you know, how beautiful that was
and just that instant desire to
nurture and protect your child.
- Ikea is investing more than 220 million dollars
toward becoming more climate positive.
The international Swedish furniture giant
announced that the money will go toward green energy,
reforestation and forest protection to help mitigate
the company's carbon footprint over the next decade.
Inter Ikea group's CEO, Torbjörn Lööf, said in a statement,
"our ambition is to reduce more green house gas
emissions in absolute terms by 2030 than the entire Ikea
value chain emits while growing the Ikea business."
In it's 2018 sustainability report Ikea estimated
it's climate footprint to be
26.9 million times of carbon dioxide equivalent.
This shows an increase of 2.8% when compared with 2016.
Ikea has attributed this to the growth of the company.
The brand says that it will offset this increase by
cutting it's raw material footprint.
Ikea will also aim to lower the emissions
from customers traveling and adopt more
renewable heating and fuel.
Jack Black says that everyone should consider
going vegan for the environment.
The actor and musician, along with Nora Lum,
better known as Awkwafina, appeared in Wired's
auto-complete interview to answer the internet's
most searched question's about themselves.
One of the most frequently asked questions
about Black is if he's vegan.
During the Wired interview he talked about the environmental
benefits of going plant-based.
While he's not vegan, Black said he would like to be
even though cheeseburgers are his favorite food.
He added, "I am in spirit and really, it's time
for everyone to consider that lifestyle.
I found out that vegans are better for the environment.
Why? Cow farts."
Avon Products Inc. has taken a major step
toward becoming cruelty free.
The international beauty brand will no longer conduct
regulatory required cosmetic animal
testing in every country, including China.
Going forward the company will work with its suppliers
to ensure that no ingredients are tested on animals.
Avon will focus on working with suppliers
on their animal testing policies for
ingredients used in Avon's products.
"Meanwhile, Avon will continue to work with it's partners
to push for regulatory change and greater acceptance
of alternatives to animal testing,"
the company said in a statement.
Avon Products Inc. is a separate brand from New Avon LLC.
The former, sells cosmetics everywhere in the world
except for the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada.
According to the new Avon website,
the company has a deep respect for animal welfare
and does not conduct animal testing.
Avon does not conduct animal testing on it's
products or ingredients, nor does it
ask others to do so on it's behalf.
Billion hedge fund manager, Christopher Han,
has warned companies that are not doing
their part to address climate change.
Han is the founder of TCI Fund Management.
The fund manages more than 28 billion dollars in assets.
Han issued letters to major companies that TCI
has invested in, including Google,
to demand more transparency about their
impact on the planet.
- Developing countries, they'll tell you
they already see the impact.
Poor countries are disproportionately being impacted
even though they weren't the cause of the problem.
And so, this is also a moral issue.
- The Fund Irsch Company's to report total carbon
and other green house gas emissions through CDP,
an independent environmental consultancy.
TCI added that it may sell it's shares if companies
that do not outline their climate change impacts.
The disclosure must include targets for emissions
intensity reduction and absolute level reduction.
TCI said that it would typically vote against
all directors of companies which do not publicly
disclose all of the emissions and do not have
a credible plan for their reduction.
They added that company's plans for reduction
should align with the Paris Agreement.
Han told the Financial Times, "investing in a company
that doesn't disclose it's pollution is like investing
in a company that doesn't disclose it's balance sheet.
If governments are not demanding it, then investors
should force it themselves."
Unilever's new 85 million Euro innovation center will
focus on developing vegan food.
The new center, nicknamed "Hive",
aims to transform the global food system.
Particular areas of research include
new meat alternatives and plant-based food,
more efficient crops and sustainable packaging.
It also hopes to tackle issues such as
food waste and climate change.
Unilever's CEO, Alan Jope, said a fundamental
transformation is necessary to feed more than
9 billion people sustainably and nutritiously.
Unilver's Hive will lead it's innovation programs
for brands with plant-based options such as Knorr,
Hellman's, and the Vegetarian Butcher.
The company now offers approximately 700 vegan
and vegetarian friendly products.
Jope continued, "malnutrition, obesity, climate change
and food waste are issues that can only be
addressed if we work in partnership.
To accelerate technology and innovation,
having a global research and development center
in Wageningen will enable us to do exactly this."
Hive is located on the Wageningen University Campus
in the Netherlands.
Food valley, a leading research hub
for global food and agriculture.
Mercedes Benz could ditch all leather thanks to vegan
Mercedes team F1 driver Lewis Hamilton.
The 6 time Formula 1 Champion said that he will
speak to his Mercedes team about making cars
with animal free interiors.
He added that he wants to aim for
more sustainability in general in Formula 1.
"I'm trying to push for sustainability
with my team," Hamilton told Options,
a Malaysian lifestyle publication.
"I'm trying to get more involved
in Formula 1 and be more conscious.
Mercedes Benz is a huge organization," he continued.
" I have got a phone call with the CEO later today
to discuss how we can work on getting rid of all
leather supplied to the cars.
That is something I want to be involved in."
Formula 1 has a significant carbon footprint
which contributes to climate change,
but Hamilton pledged to go
carbon-neutral by the end of the year.
He also committed to flying less.
Hamilton says that making positive changes
to Formula 1 are important.
He told Options, " I want to be part of a system
that is going to help heal the world and
do something positive for the future."
That's it for today.
What do you think about Greta Thunberg
as Times Person of the Year?
Let us know in the comments below.
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We'll see again next week for
Live Kindly's weekly vegan news.
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