At Octopus Vitality, we’re dedicated to constructing a enterprise that’s higher for our world. Our electrical energy is 100% renewable. We plant timber across the UK of their hundreds to fight, and draw consideration to, the devastating results of air air pollution. We accomplice with charities like Renewable World on carbon offsetting the pure gasoline utilized by our SuperGreen prospects – from reforestation tasks to bringing renewable vitality know-how to communities with restricted entry to energy.
All of that is to say, we take our remit to make sustainable, environmentally acutely aware selections, very severely.
Some debate has been circulating up to now few months in regards to the affect of vitality manufacturing on animals, and the usage of animal merchandise within the era of some varieties of vitality – particularly, anaerobic digestion.
We requested Grace, vitality specialist and London workplace vegan extraordinare, to set the report straight.
Right here’s Grace:
The phrase ‘vegan vitality’ has been on everybody’s lips for the previous few months. Chances are you’ll be one of many many individuals who curiously dashed to Google not so way back, keen to search out out what precisely providing vegan vitality would possibly imply. The vitality central to this dialogue is anaerobic digestion (AD).
So what’s AD, and extra to the purpose, is Octopus vegan?
Right here at Octopus, we obtain fairly a couple of enquiries from curious vegans in regards to the little-known gasoline supply. As a renewable vitality firm, Octopus will get its vitality from a myriad of sources. These embrace photo voltaic, wind, marine, wooden and, after all, anaerobic digestion. Although our actual gasoline combine varies day-to-day, the quantity we take from AD averages round 49% *[2020 update: our fuel mix currently doesn’t contain anaerobic digestion]. Not like photo voltaic and wind vitality, AD isn’t climate dependent, so ensures we are able to present clear, inexperienced vitality even when the solar isn’t shining.
Anaerobic Digestion produces vitality by heating primarily biodegradable supplies — ‘feedstock’ in AD phrases — like animal (and even human) manure, meals waste, agricultural crops, and their byproducts, in an hermetic container. The ensuing biogas is burned for gasoline.In our early days, Octopus Vitality was contacted by a less-than-happy vegan buyer who questioned our use of animal merchandise of this sort in our gasoline combine. Consequently, we eliminated any animal-containing meals waste and farm waste from our course of.
We nonetheless use animal slurry as a part of our anaerobic digestion feedstock, although. And there’s purpose for this.
Animal slurry is extra dangerous to our planet, to animals, to all of us — when left to interrupt down naturally
Anaerobic digestion is an efficient approach of disposing of waste that might in any other case contribute to additional air pollution. As animal slurry breaks down naturally, it produces enormous portions of methane: a poisonous gasoline and direct contributor to local weather change. Burning AD biogas turns this dangerous greenhouse gasoline into CO2, feeding again right into a pure carbon cycle.And although many people agree that animal merchandise shouldn’t be offered for human consumption, for the time being, these merchandise comprise large industries producing an unlimited quantity of waste. Discovering a clear and productive approach of coping with this waste is a very vital step towards combating additional air pollution.
Plus, AD truly reduces the variety of chemical fertilisers utilized in breaking down animal slurry. Lots of which play a giant function within the destruction of bees — an important a part of our ecosystem! While we absolutely help the efforts of those that are vegan, and are comfortable that this nonetheless fairly area of interest lifestyle has come into mainstream dialogue, this current discussions poses a much bigger query:
Can any vitality provider ever be actually vegan?
As we’ve got seen by the local weather chaos of the previous twenty years, the knock-on results of our methods of life are sometimes solely seen years, many years, typically centuries down the road. The worldwide dependancy to coal and oil over the previous few centuries led to penalties that we’re solely simply beginning to see as we speak, from pure disasters to unpredictable climate patterns. If we have been to analyse, say, wind energy over an extended time frame, would we not have simply as huge an argument towards it being vegan? And if we assessed the environmental affect of the almond farming market, as many are already doing, we might little doubt begin to query how actually vegan something actually is.
So, we’re not labelling ourselves as a ‘vegan’ vitality provider.
However we don’t need you to cease caring! Scale back your plastic waste, use public transport, change your consuming habits…or maybe be a part of a renewable vitality provider!
