By Will Novosedlik

Do you watch TV while you’re eating dinner?

If you answered yes to that question, you are among nearly half of Canadians who do. It’s a rather alarming statistic if you think about it, and not just from a social perspective.

According to a recent survey conducted by Angus Reid on behalf of Maple Leaf Foods, 86% of Canadian parents admit that they’d like to spend more quality time away from screens, but nearly 50% of Canadian families eat meals while watching television.

This common practice, taking place in approximately five million Canadian households (in 2022 approx. 10.61 million families were living in Canada), is one example of electricity generation that may seem minimal, but collectively has an impact. It would take planting trees across more than 50 hockey rinks to offset the amount of CO2 generated by just one hour of TV watching by these Canadian families.

All of this has prompted Maple Leaf Foods to dedicate its second annual Little Changes Day to challenge Canadians to shut off their TVs while having dinner. They’re calling it the Disconnected Dinner Challenge. Little Changes Day is an annual day for collective action where Canadians are encouraged to join Maple Leaf Foods by making little changes that can help to protect the planet for future generations.

Maple Leaf Foods established Little Changes Day in 2022 to mark the company’s carbon neutral anniversary after research revealed that Canadians were looking to do their part to help the planet, but many didn’t know where to start. A significant 75% asked about the little changes they can make to protect the planet. As a response to this, Little Changes Day was created to provide resources, tips and challenges Canadians can participate in for a big impact on the environment.

This year’s challenge has been widely promoted on social media and broadcast channels. Maple Leaf Foods partnered with lifestyle expert Taylor Kaye who shared interactive tips on morning show and radio segments across the country, including Things to Know TO, CTV Morning Live Vancouver, CTV Morning Live Ottawa, CTV Morning Live Edmonton, CTV Morning Live Winnipeg and Sirius XM. Kaye’s modest following (roughly 10-12k) has benefited greatly by the above-mentioned broadcast appearances, boosting impressions into the millions.

MLF’s #DisconnectedDinner tip: The Conversation Jar. Turn off the background entertainment and create a conversation jar to get everyone talking.

Maple Leaf received positive feedback on its Conversation Jars, which provided conversation starter ideas for families to discuss during dinner in place of screen time. It was also brought to life for Maple Leaf team members internally at a Maple Leaf Foods’ Town Hall.

Last year’s Little Changes program challenged Canadians to wash their clothes in cold water as a way of saving energy. Strategy asked about how successful it was in changing people’s behaviour. Says Annemarie Gerber, director of external and digital communications, “It’s really more about raising awareness than anything. In terms of measuring the little changes that people actually make, like taking shorter showers, or turning off the water when you’re brushing your teeth, those things are much more difficult to accurately measure.”

The main objective of the Little Changes Day campaigns is to increase awareness of MLF’s sustainability commitments. So how did it do first time around? It generated 13.1 million total media impressions across 316 pieces of content, 649,580 online and social impressions, and 1.3 million broadcast segment impressions, however Maple Leaf Foods did not have data detailing changes in awareness of its sustainability commitments.

Aside from the awareness building campaign aimed at consumers, Maple Leaf Foods is very actively pursuing much bigger changes within its operations. “I think one of the biggest ones is to maintain carbon neutrality, which we’ve had since 2019. That’s an ongoing commitment where we have completely removed GHG emissions either through in-house interventions or through investing in projects that have high integrity and are reducing carbon that we cannot yet abate, but are working towards,” shares Joe McMahan, the company’s VP of sustainability and shared value.

A full 360-degree assessment of the company’s carbon footprint requires a holistic look at the entire lifecycle and all of its inputs. “That requires supply chain engagement. If you look at our footprint, a large percentage of it comes from outside of our four walls,” McMahan explains. “It comes from the ingredients that we purchase, it comes from our hogs, it comes from our chickens, it comes from our plant-based options.”

The company has set bold, science-based targets to reduce its carbon footprint and neutralize its Scope 1 and 2 emissions and a portion of its Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. “To neutralize the remaining and currently unavoidable emissions, we invest in high-impact environmental projects. We’re investing in regenerative agriculture practices within our supply chain to reduce our environmental impact and, outside its supply chain, to support high-quality nature-based solutions that foster sustainable food production and contribute to maintaining our carbon neutral status,” says McMahan.