Being more sustainable doesn’t mean overhauling your entire routine overnight. Some of the biggest impact comes from small, consistent changes to your and your pups everyday habits.

Choose Sustainable Fish

Did you know that 1 in 3 global fisheries are overfished? 

While salmon is one of the most popular seafoods in pet food, sourcing it often relies on large scale ocean fishing and intensive farming practices, which put significant strain on fragile marine ecosystems.

Wild-caught whitefish like cod and pollock come with their own cost, often harvested through bottom trawling, a destructive practice that tears up the ocean floor and leads to high levels of unintended bycatch.

Chippin’s Silver carp offers a better way forward. This wild-caught fish is invasive in U.S. waterways, where it has disrupted native ecosystems. By creating demand for Silver Carp (with a little help from our pets), we can help restore biodiversity while reducing reliance on harmful ocean fishing practices.

Consider Composting

Food waste is one of the largest contributors to landfill volume, where it breaks down and releases methane—a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide. If your dog turns their nose up at left-over apple slices, composting is a simple alternative to tossing food in the trash.

Fruit and veggie scraps, egg shells, and certain paper products are all everyday waste items that can be composted, turning organic waste into nutrient-rich soil. If you’re not ready to start your own back yard compost bin, there may be a free community drop off at your local farmers market or natural grocery store.

Choose Upcycled Packaging

Plastic is made from fossil fuels and rarely gets recycled in practice. While it’s ideal to avoid plastic when possible, turning to upcycled materials can help reduce the impact.

Upcycled plastics are made from plastic waste that is repurposed into new packaging. By giving materials like milk cartons or yogurt cups a second life, brands can reduce reliance on new plastic production and keep waste out of landfills.

It’s a small shift that helps close the loop on materials that would otherwise be discarded.

Choose Sustainable Proteins

Protein is an essential part of a healthy diet, whether you walk on four legs or two. Traditional livestock like beef and lamb are among the highest impact protein sources, contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and water pollution.

Switching to a sustainable protein alternative is an excellent way to reduce your carbon pawprint. Cricket protein, for example, uses 13x less land, 2,000x less water, and produces virtually no methane compared to beef, while delivering 2x the protein. 

Spirulina is another sustainable protein that helps improve air quality by absorbing CO2 as it grows. It’s highly digestible, rich in essential vitamins and minerals, and made up of 55% protein by dry weight, making it a powerful plant-based protein used in some vegan dog treats.

Make Progress, Not Perfection

Sustainable living isn’t about perfection, it’s about progress and education.

When you’re ready to make a change, start by using what you already have before replacing it with something new. Small, thoughtful choices over time can add up to meaningful impact.

Together, each of our actions can build up to create a positive change for our planet.