The municipality encourages residents, employees, and businesses to embrace plant-based eating this January for a healthier, more ethical, and sustainable future.
(West Hollywood, CA – December 18th 2024) – The City of West Hollywood, CA, under the guidance of Vice Mayor Chelsea Byers, has been a leader in plant-based initiatives. At their City Council Meeting yesterday, the council voted in favor of a resolution to promote Veganuary to residents, City staff, and businesses. This effort, an implementation of their recently-signed Plant Based Treaty, aligns with the city’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2035, and aims to demonstrate how small lifestyle changes can collectively contribute to reduced greenhouse gas emissions and improved public health.
“I am proud to bring Veganuary to the City of West Hollywood! This action is a continuation of the City’s ambitious climate goals and ongoing support for animal rights and welfare. This month, our residents and businesses will come together to participate in this challenge to highlight the health, environmental, and ethical benefits of plant-based diets,” says West Hollywood Vice Mayor Chelsea Bryers.
Citywide communications of the 31-day eating challenge:
Everyone is invited to join the month-long celebration and exploration of plant-based eating, and can receive free resources (recipes, daily tips, a celebrity cookbook, and more) by taking part on Veganuary’s website. Since 2014, Veganuary has inspired millions of people around the world to try eating vegan, and has many celebrity supporters, such as Woody Harrelson, Maggie Baird, Joaquin Phoenix, Alicia Silverstone, Richa Moorjani, Sarah Jeffrey, Daniella Monet, and many more; some of them even reside in the area.
The increased interest in plant-based eating was also demonstrated by students at UCLA who were the first students to run an official Veganuary campaign on their campus in January 2024.
The Veganuary Workplace Challenge for City staff:
The Veganuary 31-day pledge encourages employees to try vegan for a month, enhancing sustainability, employee health, and satisfaction. Veganuary offers resources to HR, employee wellness, and sustainability leaders, such as email templates, prompts, and posters. Employers such as EY (Ernst & Young), City of San Antonio TX, Aveda, and hundreds more have participated with their teams.
Outreach to local businesses:
Over 400 US businesses participated in Veganuary this past year, launching new vegan products and restaurant menu items and utilizing Veganuary’s free marketing assets. Restaurant chains such as Hard Rock Cafe and Ike’s Love & Sandwiches introduced special Veganuary menus, while other local favorites like Veggie Grill by Next Level, PLANTA, and Butcher’s Daughter offered discounts on their already vegan offerings. The City’s Economic Development Department will reach out to more local businesses to invite them to participate in 2025.
“We were so delighted to see the City endorse the Plant Based Treaty and are even more excited to see them implementing Veganuary! West Hollywood is the first US City to run such a comprehensive Veganuary program and we can’t wait to see it roll out next month!”, says Veganuary’s US Director, Sandra Hungate.
“We are happy to introduce Veganuary to West Hollywood as part of the Plant Based Treaty Resolution implementation. Veganuary is an incredibly impactful campaign with a high individual retention rate for trying out plant-based foods! It perfectly compliments Plant Based Treaty’s outreach, education, and awareness efforts with cities, universities, and businesses. We are so happy to see that West Hollywood has embraced the Veganuary Campaign and we hope it will empower their constituents to take action for years to come!”, says The Plant Based Treaty LA Team.
About Veganuary:
Veganuary is free to join, and people can take part at veganuary.com to receive our Celebrity eCookbook, the Official Veganuary Starter Kit and 31 daily emails packed with nutritional info, delicious recipes, meal plans and helpful advice.
Since Veganuary launched its first pledge in January 2014 – millions of people, coming from almost every country in the world, have taken part. From humble beginnings on a kitchen table in Yorkshire, there are now official Veganuary campaigns in the UK, US, Germany, Chile, Argentina, India, Spain, Australia, Austria, Brazil, France, Greece, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland and Canada. It has truly become a global phenomenon.
About Plant Based Treaty:
Plant Based Treaty promotes a shift towards a just, plant-based food system that would enable us to live safely within our planetary boundaries and reforest the Earth. Since its launch in August 2021, the Plant Based Treaty initiative has received endorsement from 34 cities, a quarter million individual endorsers, 5 Nobel laureates, IPCC scientists, and more than 3000 groups and businesses.
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