In this week’s Our Take, Nestlé offers a welcome relief to arthritis sufferers who are upholding a rich culinary tradition. In Killarney, communities are committing to a coffee cup cleanse in the name of waste reduction. On the topic of climate, what is the weight of an email in the battle for a greener future? And in Kyoto University, a liberal dress code makes for an innovative graduation ceremony…
A Handy Solution
In Mexico, the diagnosis of arthritis is 60% higher than anywhere else in the world. To raise awareness, food and drinks brand Nestlé worked with a physiotherapist to create series of recipes that doubled up as hand exercises.
Mexico is legendary for its cooking culture, rooted in the nations rich identity. But unfortunately, due to the high numbers experiencing arthritis, many are forced to give it up early. Enter Nestlé and the 20 recipes co-created with a dietician and a chef, each dish made to ensure that there is an exercise in place to help to those with arthritis. Think dough rolling and massage truffles. And of course, each dish sounds tasty AF.
A campaign that saw Nestlé boldly branch into a sector beyond its own and create a stirring campaign that celebrates culinary tradition and cultural identity.
Clean Coffee Cup Kingdom
While David Clifford and the Kerry footballers were grabbing headlines last week, they shared the limelight with the coffee shops and hoteliers of Killarney who themselves made a brave statement; to eliminate single use coffee and tea cups from distribution.
The Killarney Coffee Cup Project, an agreement between more than 40 Killarney coffee shops, cafes and hotels, is aiming to remove approximately 1 million single use cups from the town each year, ultimately reducing waste by up to 18.5 tonnes. This is a huge move for a town so reliant on tourism and a fantastic initiative which, in time will be seen as a landmark move and a great example for other towns to follow.
All eyes in the Kingdom will move to Croke Park at the end of the month for the All-Ireland football final but interest will simultaneously peak to see how the introduction of the ban goes!
📧 Re: A Greener Inbox
Deleting emails is often cited as a way to help reduce your ‘carbon footprint’ but what can a few emails do in the fight for a greener future?
Mike Berners-Lee’s book How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything first calculated that the average emissions of an email is 0.3g CO2e (this increases with every document and image you attach).
Over the course of a year and multiplied by the world’s online population, emails create a sizable chunk of carbon. Berners-Lee states that “When we take a small action to cut carbon it’s a message to yourself that you care about the climate emergency.”
So hold off on that one word Thanks email, small changes do have an impact!
’cos they can
In Kyoto University, there is no formal dress code for the graduation ceremony. Perhaps the administration expected that social pressure would do its thing and graduates would show up dressed respectably, in a typical Japanese medley of conservative suits, Harajuku style, and traditional kimonos.
What they probably didn’t account for in their lax approach to rule-writing, was that the University’s deans would end up handing out degrees to the likes of cartoon cats, evil robots, various manga characters and a host of other outrageous characters. But in the homeland of cos-play, dressing up for graduation in the most creative way possible has become A THING, and we love love love it.