A decade ago, Matthew Glover and Jane Land thought of starting a new vegan movement. Inspired by “Movember” for men and having been vegan for some time, they toyed with the idea of challenging the world to turn vegan for 31 days for the month of January. What started as a discussion between them has now become a global phenomenon with significant social, economic, and environmental impact.
In an interview with The Guardian, Glover discusses how they never dreamed of the success of their movement. “When we created Veganuary, we thought about individuals. We didn’t think about businesses, retailers, manufacturers and restaurants,” Glover said.
Glover is referring to the many businesses that now use the hashtag and ride the movement in order to promote their plant-based products. Burger King, for example, rode the wave to promote their “bakon” burger.
Among the thousands of people that sign up for Veganuary each year are celebrities that help push the movement even further. Billie Eilish promoted it in 2023, and her post reached almost 1 billion TikTok views. Other celebrities include Joaquin Phoenix, Paul McCartney, Lucy Watson, Evanna Lynch, and more.
But beyond the businesses and beyond the hype, Veganuary has quite the environmental impact. As stated in their website, “for every one million official participants who eat vegan for 31 days, 6.2 million litres of water are saved, 3.4 million animals are spared from a lifetime of suffering, and the CO2 equivalent of 1.2 million flights from London to Paris is saved.”
Every sign up for Veganuary grants the participant resources to complete the challenge (free recipes, anyone?), as well as continued support to stay vegan or live a more vegan lifestyle beyond the 31 day challenge.
Interested? Sign up at Veganuary.com
XOXO,
Your Fashion Bestie
