New research shows good news; restaurants can cut down dramatically on the amount of food they waste and see a host of benefits from doing so.
thespoon.tech, london.
New research on behalf of Champions 12.3 – which tackles food waste as part of the Sustainable Development Goals – makes a robust case for cutting food waste at restaurants. The analysis of 114 restaurants in 12 countries found that nearly every restaurant achieved a positive return when investing in food waste-reduction programs, with the average restaurant seeing a 600 percent return on investment. The average restaurant also reduced food waste by 26 percent within the first year of working to reduce it.
How is this possible?
Even though most restaurants are pretty efficient these days, they still waste quite a bit of food. Many restaurant managers and business leaders accept waste as part of the cost of doing business, bury the associated costs of food waste in operational budgets and don’t see programs to reduce waste as worth the investment. In our analysis, however, all sites kept their total investment over three years under $20,000 and got $7 back for every $1 invested.
For more details, read The Business Case for Reducing Food Loss and Waste: Restaurants.
Never heard of Champions 12.3? We neither, but after reading a press release, during World Economic Forum 2019, we’re ‘in the know’.
“New “Champions 12.3” Coalition to Inspire Action to Reduce Food Loss & Waste 30 CEOs, government ministers, global institution executives, and civil society leaders will increase political and social momentum to achieve Target 12.3 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals”
Key points:
* Nearly 1/3 of all food is lost or wasted globally, costing $940 billion per year
* Food loss and waste accounts for about 8 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions
* Target 12.3 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims to halve food waste and reduce food loss globally by 2030
* Champions 12.3 is dedicated to inspiring ambition, mobilizing action, and accelerating progress toward achieving SDG Target 12.3
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, a coalition of 30 leaders – Champions 12.3 – launched a new effort to inspire ambition and mobilize action to reduce food loss and waste globally. This leadership group aims to accelerate progress toward meeting Target 12.3 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which seeks to halve per capita food waste and reduce food losses by 2030. Globally, a third of all food is lost or wasted between the farm and the fork.
Reducing food loss and waste can be a triple win: It can save money for farmers, companies, and households; wasting less can feed more people; and reductions can alleviate pressure on climate, water, and land resources. The Champions include CEOs of major companies, government ministers, and executives of research and intergovernmental institutions, foundations, farmer organizations, and civil society groups. These leaders will work to create political, business and social momentum to reduce food loss and waste around the world.
Inspired by the “No More Food to Waste” conference in The Hague in June of 2015, the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands formally called for the coalition’s formation in September 2015 and is providing secretariat support for Champions 12.3, along with World Resources Institute (www.wri.org). See the full list of champions and get more information at: www.champions123.org
