Guilt-free feasting this Christmas

Guilt-free feasting this Christmas: If we want to keep feasting at future Christmases – and do it guilt-free – we need to make the right decisions today. To help us get there we imagine a Christmas feast in 2050, look at how one student is reducing her school’s food related emissions, highlight how farming is going vertical in Hong Kong and examine which diet is the most planet friendly. Plus, see why Fashion made Santa’s Naughty & Nice lists and how 3D printed tiles are saving coral reefs.

The year is 2050 and Hong Kong has become the first city in Asia to be 100% sustainable and food secure, which means it’s the first year to enjoy a guilt-free and climate friendly Christmas dinner. Can you imagine… we did and it’s wonderful!

How did Hong Kong get there? Well, there’s the lab-grown turkey from City Super, hydroponic sprouts from vertical farms and more. See what else we imagined for feasting in 2050.

Back to today, Isabel Picazo, student at Independent Schools Foundation was shocked when she found out the high carbon emissions from her school’s cafeteria, 23,041gCO2e per week, which is almost three times more than a similar Hong Kong school.

By bringing this up with the school and its food provider (Sodexo), ISF is now trialling a 3 month period of offering daily vegetarian meal options to lower carbon emissions. See what else Picazo is doing as part of her Carbon Canteen initiative.

Indeed, the world is in the midst of a food conundrum. As King Lai, Founder of Genius Greens, points out 70% of freshwater is already used for food production and with conventional growing methods, even more water, land and fossil fuels will be needed to meet growing food demands.

In our sit down with Lai, he shares how Genius Greens, a vertical farm in Hong Kong that is a Grand Hyatt supplier, is tackling these key environmental issues. Hear more from Lai on his journey and if he thinks Hong Kong can become more food secure.

Meanwhile, are we sure we know what the most planet friendly diet is? It’s plant based, right? It’s flexitarian, no? Maybe not as Green Queen’s Sally Ho examines, and it has to do with waste.

A study has found that ‘healthier’ diets were associated with more end food waste but low-quality diets had higher cropland waste. And then there is the compostability of different food waste. Get the full overview and tips on the best way to choose food. 

Choice also matters with fashion, which is a regular on Santa’s Naughty list due to its negative and significant impacts on the climate and environment, but this year it has also made it on to his Nice list… just.

Get on top of the fashion headlines making Santa’s lists this Christmas. Which is Zara on? How about Shein? And what about a new next gen fibre initiative? Remember to make suitable fashion choices, Santa will know.

Some good news to end the year is the “30-by-30” goal agreed at the recent COP15 (United Nations Biodiversity Conference), which means countries committed to protect 30% of land and 30% of coastal and marine areas by 2030.

Speaking of marine areas, did you know that Hong Kong is home to more hard coral species than the Caribbean? But with land reclamation and climate change, they urgently need protecting.

Archireef has a way to do this with special 3D printed clay tiles that have a 95% survivorship rate. We sat down with Archireef CEO & Co-founder, Vriko Yu, to learn how their tiles work and their expansion plans for South East Asia.

And on that jolly note, let’s make the right choices this Christmas so we can have guilt-free feasts to come. Happy holiday from the CWR Team!