Auckland plant-based meal initiative slashes emissions

Auckland Council is tackling CO2 emissions with a programme that encourages Aucklanders to eat more plant-based meals.

In 2023, the Council launched the Different Dinners initiative, and the pilot programme rolled out in 2024.

In a statement, the Auckland Council Climate Action Solutions Team Manager Adrian Feasey says that the 2024 pilot “revealed a promising trend, with participants increasing their plant-based dinners by an average of two per week.”

“Assuming this change extended to other household members, the initiative is estimated to have achieved an annual reduction of 106 tonnes of CO2e.”

Feasey says that the Different Dinners project helps deliver on Te Tāruke-ā-Tāwhiri: Auckland's Climate Plan which aims to reduce Auckland’s carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2030.

Auckland Council partners with four environmental organisations for Different Dinners, each representing “a unique community, providing insights into how the initiative could be implemented across different settings.”

It provides funding for project management, promotion, distribution and discounts on food boxes.

One of the four organisations delivering the second iteration of Different Dinners is the Kaipātiki Project, based in Birkdale. It is in its third of the four-week programme with 108 participants as of 27 March.

When the Kaipātiki Project ran Different Dinners in 2024, participants, on average, reduced their weekly meat-based meals from 86.2 per cent to 57.9 per cent.

Kaipātiki Project Communications & Engagement Lead, Blanka Ros, says Different Dinners is all about showing people how easy it is to make delicious plant-based meals.

She says a big barrier to people consuming more plant-based meals is the widespread perception, “if there's no meat, the meal is not completed.”

People who sign up get a free plant-based recipe booklet, and access to discounted “produce packs” from Food Together, which are ordered online and picked up at local community houses.

Participants also receive a weekly newsletter with recipes and can ask questions or share experiences and ideas in a dedicated WhatsApp group.

Ros says these incentives both save people money and prompt them to try out something new.

“Suddenly, you've got this broccoli and cauliflower and courgette, or whatever's in it. And you start thinking, oh, how do I use it?”

Participants fill out two surveys, one at the start of the programme and one a month after it finishes.

In addition to Different Dinners, the Kaipātiki Project holds regular gardening workshops in its “teaching garden” at its EcoHub.

The teaching garden is full of vegetables, fruits, and herbs. It is maintained by volunteers, who get to take the produce home.

To Ros, success comes in more than just statistics. She wants people to feel healthier, meet new people, be more locally involved, and enjoy the learning journey.

“It's community initiatives, working with other community organisations that are around us and with our local community, linking them to … local growers, connecting with the teaching garden, learning how to grow their own food and then taking that back home and growing themselves.”