Hallo, joyful viewers, and welcome to today’s Good People, Good Works where we are once again visiting with British journalist and environmentalist Chantal Cooke, who in 2002 co-founded Passion for the Planet, a UK-based radio station that is dedicated to helping listeners pursue greener, healthier, and more fulfilling lifestyles.

The London Leaders program brings together leading civic figures of diverse backgrounds to advise the Mayor of London, England on various important issues concerning the city. In 2009 Chantal Cooke was appointed a London Leader in Sustainability due to her experience in promoting green living.

For her vigorous efforts to preserve and protect the planet, Ms. Cooke has received many awards, including the Triodos Women in Ethical Business Award, the Green Business Award and the British Environment and Media Award. Ms. Cooke and her business partner Kenny Stevens insisted on “walking their talk,” when setting up their radio station.

Thus they minimized resource consumption by carefully considering all the items they needed and looked for sustainable ways to furnish the office. For example, the tiles chosen for the walls are plant-based and thus are completely biodegradable.

We put lots and lots of things in place right from the beginning. So, as an example, a lot of this office has got recycled furniture in it. We didn’t go out and buy lots of new things. We went round saying to people, “Have you got office chairs and have you got this and so on?”

And then my mother was great. She was working at Chelsea Harbor at the time and we got lots of fabric samples from companies that were throwing out old samples of fabric. And she sat there with a sewing machine, and so on. And we made covers for the chairs and for the sofas and things like that. And I think personally, they've got a bit more personality than if we’d just bought something from somewhere.

All efforts are also made to make the running of the workplace green as well. Paper and envelopes used at the station are made of recycled materials. The staff are asked to turn off their computers at night and the waste created is dealt with in an Earth-friendly manner.

And then it was also about having certain behaviors in the office that we make sure we did. So turning the lights off and those sorts of things is one of them but equally, putting our composting into a little tub and then after a couple of days, I'd just take it home with me, and that could be composted rather than chucking it in the bin. We petitioned the building owner here and got all the other companies down the corridor to get on with us and said, “We’d like to have some paper recycling at the office.”

And we found out how much that would cost to take it and get it all sorted out and then got everybody in the building to come and go, “Yes, we want it too.” And sure enough, the building owner responded and there’s now paper recycling actually on site which gets collected every week.

Participating in London Leaders Program inspired Chantal Cooke to create an initiative to touch the lives of her fellow city residents called “Munch Less Meat.”

So, for my personal project, because obviously I've got a passion for animals, what I wanted to do was encourage Londoners to eat just a little bit less meat. So you could, for example, have a meat-free day a week.

That would have an impact. How about learning one recipe that's vegetarian? Because I think we tend to have, four or five recipes we rotate round the whole time. So if one of those was a vegetarian recipe, how much difference would that make? Could you perhaps host a dinner party? Get a whole lot of meat-eating friends around and try out a whole load of vegetarian stuff.

Ms. Cooke has developed a delightful website that provides many suggestions on ways one can reduce or end their meat consumption. Posted on the site are useful facts such as of all diets, the organic vegan diet is the one with the smallest environmental impact.

So you can go to that website and there's all different challenges there. So you can choose which challenge suits you best. It will tell you about some of the savings that you'll make. So, I think, as an example if you had a meat-free dinner party and there was six of you altogether, you'd save something like 14 pounds of grain. So that grain could actually be used to feed somebody else.

So I know you’re not physically going, “Oh, here's 14 pounds and we'll hand it over.” But it's about showing you that actually it's about saving grain that could feed people in the developing world. Perhaps it's about saving water; it could even be about saving fossil fuels and things like that. So each little thing you do has an impact.

She has also challenged all the restaurants in London to offer at least two vegetarian menu options to encourage diners to try vegetarian food. When we return, we’ll continue our intriguing interview with Ms. Cooke. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

So I think sometimes we get overwhelmed by the problem and then go, “Oh, I’m so tiny, I don’t make any difference.” Everything, absolutely everything makes a difference and the most important thing is to start somewhere.

Welcome back to Good People, Good Works as we continue our talk with journalist, environmentalist and co-founder of the Passion for the Planet radio station Chantal Cooke. For as long as she can remember Ms. Cooke has loved animals, and after a sudden realization during her teen years she decided to stop eating meat.

I sat there and I thought, "Hold on a second, why am I eating this?" And actually if you really push it through to its logical conclusion, "If I can eat a cow, well, why couldn't I eat a pussycat?" Right. And the idea of eating a pussycat is just like, “Whoa, that's just (disgusting)!” You wouldn't do that. And actually, if I can eat a pussycat, why am I not allowed to eat you?" (Yes.) And to me, it just seems so, no difference.

So clearly, for most people, the idea of eating another human being would be pretty repulsive and probably for a lot of people, maybe eating a cat would be also pretty repulsive, maybe not as repulsive as the human being idea.

But actually why is there some kind of graduated response to it? Why is eating a human worse than eating a cow? (Yeah.) I don't get it, really. (Yes.) Because it's still eating somebody else’s flesh and I just don't think that's very nice.

I'm perfectly healthy on a non-meat diet. So I've got a choice. Why am I still going down this route of eating this stuff which actually is bad for the environment, not entirely great for my health? (Yes.) Ethically this is, very questionable and we share the planet. I think sometimes we get into this thing where we think that, “So it's our planet and well, they're (the animals) just there for us.”

And actually, they were here before we were, a lot of them and even if they weren't, this is not about who was here first and who it belongs to. It's actually about we all share it together. And if we go back to this idea of an ecosystem, if I pulled out all of one type of animal because I ate all of it, what impact does it have on the eco-system overall?

And without a doubt, we need animals to survive. And I think probably a lot of animals would survive perfectly well without us. I'm not entirely sure we'd survive perfectly well without them. (Yes.) So I think it's about having just a little bit more respect, and I can do that.

Wherever she goes, Chantal Cooke seeks to inform others about the benefits of a meat-free lifestyle, including when she goes out for dinner with friends.

That’s an opportunity to tell somebody about what I believe and why I believe it. The point is you’re having that conversation and you’re hopefully inspiring people. And even if people might push it off, given time and they hear it more and more often, and more and more people start to do it, they will actually (change). "Yes, that vegetable bake does sound quite nice actually. Maybe I will try that." It just takes time.

So I think my advice would be don’t get disheartened, and don’t sit there and think you’ve got no power. You’ve got massive power, and remember, everything starts somewhere, so be that start.

Part of leading a lifestyle that respects animals, is doing research to ensure that the items we purchase, such as clothes, shoes, and personal care products do not involve cruelty to them in their production. Chantal Cooke believes that improved labelling on products could help consumers make humane and more informed choices.

I think more information would be good. And I think sometimes actually it would be really nice, in fact, if you were allowed to put the negative stuff on there. So as an example, when we look at things like cosmetics and household products, most people assume that they’re not tested on animals. Actually the vast majority of them are tested on animals. And if it doesn’t say it’s not, you can be pretty sure it has been tested on an animal.

So actually, how about having on the back of all the products saying, “Has been tested on animals.” Because, certainly, that would make quite a difference. So I think more labeling would absolutely be a good thing.

What can each of us do to help preserve our precious planet? Ms. Cooke provides her thoughts on an approach all of us can take to help care for our one and only home.

The absolute best thing you can do is, to quote (Mahatma) Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see.” Take those actions, inspire somebody else. If somebody else sees you doing some composting or some recycling, they’ll go, “What are you doing? Why are you doing that?” Well, that’s an opportunity to talk.

Many thanks, Chantal Cooke, for starting the Munch Less Meat initiative and spreading constructive information on green living through Passion for the Planet radio. We wish you continued success with your noble work at the radio station, which is a splendid platform to share how we all can live in greater harmony across the globe.

For more details on Passion for the Planet, please visit www.PassionforthePlanet.com
Information on the Munch Less Meat project is available at MunchLessMeat.co.uk

Thank you for joining us today on Good People, Good Works. Up next is The World Around Us, after Noteworthy News. May your life always be graced with love and wisdom.

Alanna Devine, a vegetarian Canadian lawyer and Director of Animal Welfare at the Montreal branch of the Canadian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals advocates for improvements in animal welfare and anti-cruelty laws at the municipal, provincial and federal levels.

We like to see municipalities put in place anti-tethering legislation or anti-tethering bylaws. So that means that no dog can be left on a chain maybe at all or longer than two hours.

Be sure to watch “Alanna Devine, Guardian of Animal Welfare,” airing Thursday, July 22 on Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants.