Green Office Blog

South Africa is considered to be a water scarce country.  In fact, we are ranked as the 30^th driest country in the world, receiving an average of 450 mm rainfall per year compared to the global annual average of 870 mm.  Increasing population growth and climate change is sure to exacerbate this, as we have already witnessed with the severe droughts experienced in Cape Town in 2017/2018 where “day zero” was terrifyingly close to becoming a reality. 

Last month, we looked at the first One Planet Living principle of living a happy and healthy life, with healthy food choices obviously being an important aspect to health.  However, there is more to food that we need to consider than just choosing to eat more fruit and vegetables – we need to understand where our food comes from to be sustainable.  This brings us onto the next One Planet Living principle, local and sustainable food.

Choosing local food has been gaining popularity for a while now with farmers markets becoming all the rage.  As consumers, we love the idea of knowing where our food comes from whilst engaging with and supporting local businesses.  We know that choosing local supports the local economy and uplifts and supports small scale farmers, but are we aware of what buying local does for the environment?