Something for the weekend: Global shared workspace organisation WeWork has committed to being completely meat-free in order to have a greater impact on the environment.
In an all-employee email issued on 12 July 2018 by the organisation’s co-founder and chief culture officer, Miguel McKelvey (pictured), WeWork announced that it would not serve or pay for meat at any of its events. This includes refusing to purchase poultry, pork and red meat products.
By eliminating meat from WeWork’s internal events, as well as at events hosted at WeWork’s operating sites, the organisation aims to save 16.6 billion gallons of water, 445.1 million pounds of CO2 emissions and 15,507,103 animals by 2023.
WeWork will be kickstarting this commitment at its annual Summer Camp event, where no meat will be served. In addition, the organisation is planning for the all-inclusive weekend get together to be landfill-free. This includes having water bottles that are all made from 100% plant materials and recycled separately from other waste, having waste stored on site with at least 70% of all waste being recycled and the remainder sent to a carbon recapture incineration facility, reusing sleeping bags, mattresses and tents and collecting and redistributing waste food.
McKelvey said in his email memo: “We have made a commitment to be a meat-free organisation. Moving forward, we will not serve or pay for meat at WeWork events and want to clarify that this includes poultry and pork, as well as red meat.
“We are energised by this opportunity to leave a better world for future generations and appreciate [employees’] partnership as we continue the journey.”
Here at Employee Benefits, although the vegetarian and environmentally-conscious among WeWork’s 6,000 employees and 253,000 members will certainly appreciate its stance, we wonder if the carnivores will enjoy the new menus quite so much?