New App Helps You Reduce One Meal at a Time

A new app from Melbourne-based climate action group Less Meat Less Heat is challenging users to act conscientiously in regards to their diet on a day-to-day basis. 

The team at Less Meat Less Heat identified the millennial generation’s penchant towards smartphones as the perfect foothold from which to launch their campaign. The group pushes a "Climatarian diet," a daily regiment that is strikingly similar to reducetarianism. 

Backed by the data of a Harvard School of Public Health study, the Climatarian diet emphasizes personal choice based on a knowledge of the carbon footprint of different foods. In practice, this translates to a diet low in meat and dairy products that also effectively reduces the carbon footprint of the consumer.

Less Meat Less Heat's app, launching this July, will help users stick to their chosen diet (whether they call it reducetarian or Climatarian) by monitoring their meat intake. The Climatarian Challenge app allows users to track their “carbon foodprint” by inputing the portion size of every meal and the type of meat it contains. The “challenge” lasts a month and each user starts the journey with an allocation of points that represents their carbon budget. The allocation is based on the amount of meat reduction needed to keep climate change below two degrees celsius, and the goal is to end the challenge without spending all of your carbon budget points. 

The app draws the user’s attention to the impact of a high-meat diet and the easy ways they can reduce their intake. Users can compete against friends and family, and they receive helpful tips on meal preparation, nearby reducetarian restaurants and lifestyle choices that make the reducetarian diet seem effortless. It's new apps like these that showcase the innovative community surrounding the reducetarian movement and help us all make a difference one meal at a time!

Written by Paris Martineau