Do you recycle? Re-use? Buy locally-grown, organic produce? You might think you’ve got all the bases covered when it comes to being environmentally friendly.  But if you feel you’ve done all you can to reduce your carbon footprint, maybe you could try tackling a trickier subject: your carbon paw print, so to speak. While the greenest choice may be to forego domestic pets in favour of observing the wildlife in your garden (see articles on our website), or to opt for animals which help you to recycle some of your kitchen waste, like chickens, this doesn’t mean pet ownership and an environmental conscience need be mutually exclusive. Even if you choose a domestic animal, you can still make a difference.

Have you thought about the difference in taste of a nice deep-red strawberry in its high season or a pale pink one in wintertime? But it is not only a problem of taste… Did you know that 1 kg of strawberries transported from Spain to Belgium causes 2,5 kg of CO₂ emissions and that 80 tons of out-of-season strawberries are imported to Belgium each week? While local strawberries harvested in season produce only 0,2 kg CO₂? Did you know that transport by airplane generates 177 times more greenhouse gases (GHG) than shipping does? And that a cooled truck is almost as bad as an airplane when it comes to GHG?