V-STORY
Veganuary is an all-year thing at Velivery
Interview with Christopher Hollmann from Veganuary
By now everyone or almost everyone will have heard of the now iconic Veganuary at the start of the year. It’s a vegan celebration of the vegan lifestyle, and every year new fans of a wholly or overwhelmingly plant-based diet get on board. Doing Veganuary together makes getting started easy.
Not yet quite as well known is Veganuary, the charitable organisation behind it. It’s a UK export that encourages people around the world to move towards a sustainable diet. It runs interesting campaigns throughout the year aimed at encouraging vegan lifestyles – just like we do here at Velivery. We wanted to know more, so we had a chat with Christopher Hollmann, Head of Veganuary Germany. Read the interview about Veganuary in the height of summer exclusively here at Velivery!
VELIVERY: Veganuary is now a permanent fixture in the world of conscious, plant-based nutrition. But “Veganuary” – a combination of the two words “vegan” and “January” – isn’t restricted simply to the first month of every year… What is Veganuary and its basic concept?
CHRISTOPHER HOLLMANN: As a charitable organisation and campaign, for more than ten years Veganuary has been motivating people worldwide to go vegan for the new year in January each year. But we help people discover a plant-based diet at any time of the year – for 31 days or longer.
VELIVERY: How did the project start and how has it developed since then?
CHRISTOPHER HOLLMANN: It all started in 2014 at a kitchen table in Yorkshire in the UK. Since then we’ve grown enormously and are now active in campaign hubs in Germany, the US, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, India and the UK. This is in addition to countless official partner organisations in Switzerland, Italy, France, Australia, South Africa, Singapore and Mexico.
A vegan future that tastes great
VELIVERY: What is Veganuary’s aim and motivation?
CHRISTOPHER HOLLMANN: Our aim is to inspire as many people as possible to reach for plant-based alternatives. Why? Because a vegan diet is demonstrably one of the most effective ways of protecting the environment and climate, animals and the health of millions of people. A study by researchers from the University of Oxford recently revealed that a plant-based diet reduces up to three quarters of food-borne greenhouse gas emissions and land use, among other things. Awareness of the urgency of doing something to combat the climate crisis is growing – and with it the question of what each of us can do as individuals. Taking part in Veganuary is a great way of getting involved yourself.
A global movement that’s growing by the day
VELIVERY: How do you gauge this development, is Veganuary month already having a noticeable impact?
CHRISTOPHER HOLLMANN: Absolutely! And that’s not just our assessment by the way: YouGov surveys have revealed that 9 per cent of adults in Germany used Veganuary 2023 as an opportunity to consciously trial a vegan diet.
In addition to the growing interest around the world, over the past few years we have been experiencing impressive participation by companies from food production, retail and hospitality. In Germany alone, more than 860 companies took part in Veganuary 2023 – that’s twice as much as the year before. This made it the biggest campaign since the launch of Veganuary in Germany in January 2020.
One month with major impact
Our surveys indicate to us that the campaign month has generated a wholly tangible sustainable impact: following Veganuary, 78 per cent of participants are planning a permanent change in diet and would like to cut animal products by at least half.
The impact Veganuary participants have in just one month is enormous: for instance, one million Veganuary participants save 103,840 tonnes CO2 equivalents in one month. That is equivalent to 1.2 million flights between London and Paris. That’s also 3.4 million animals less that suffer for the production of animal products.
Watch this space: Veganuary’s #PlantMilkWeek
VELIVERY: What happens with Veganuary in summer and the rest of the year? What’s going on at the moment?
CHRISTOPHER HOLLMANN: Yes, we continue to build on the sustainable impact of Veganuary throughout the year. With promotional weeks like #PlantMilkWeek, which kicks off on 21 August, we offer companies and brands incentives and support to expand their plant-based offering in a targeted manner. And on social media or in shops we generate additional collective momentum, encouraging people to give a purely plant-based diet a whirl.
At the heart of #PlantMilkWeek are questions like: What does a day in the life of an animal in the dairy industry look like? What alternative plant-based foods are there? And what positive impact do these have on animals, the environment and health? Together with our supporters, we provide relevant info, tips, stories, videos and recipes for the community.
VELIVERY: That sounds great. Then we better keep our eyes peeled for all the campaigns for plant milk Plant Milk Week and dairy product alternatives mentioned by you! 🙂 Mr Hollmann, thank you so much for the stimulating chat.
Benefit from Plant Milk Week now!
So there you go, there’s always something on offer with Veganuary. And the community is growing. Together, change is possible. We invite you to keep the ball rolling all year with Velivery & Veganuary! Why not take part in Plant Milk Week (#PlantMilkWeek) run by Veganuary, which we’re supporting with great deals and a competition on Instagram! Visit our online store and discover attractive offers and some delicious milk alternatives you might not yet have heard of. What could be more fun for your plant-based summer!
PS: Veganuary never stops – get involved!
If you fancy trying your first month as a vegan, you can register for Veganuary at www.veganuary.com/try-vegan. Veganuary will be supporting participants for 31 days over the course of the campaign with a daily newsletter. This offers practical everyday tips, background info and news as well as recipes and information about new products and offers. What’s more, when you register you can download the Veganuary celebrity cookbook with recipes by a number of German and international celebrities, including Bryan Adams, Anne Menden, Oli P., Sadie Frost and more for free.
