On Monday, September 22, Food Tank hosted the “Climate Action: A Food Waste Breakthrough” Summit during Climate Week NYC, in partnership with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), Apeel, Flashfood, American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI), and ReFED.
The invitation-only event brought together policymakers, scientists, food industry leaders, nonprofit organizations, and cultural influencers to explore the intersection of food loss and waste, climate action, consumer behavior, and scalable innovations. Panelists focused on how food waste solutions offer a win-win for multiple crises facing the world today.
Watch the full livestreamed event on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.
“You can’t really talk about climate change without talking about food waste,” says Luiz Beling, CEO of Apeel Sciences.
Speakers agreed that tackling food waste is one of the most immediately effective climate solutions that countries, communities, and individuals can implement right now.
“You get food out of landfills today, and you’re saving methane emissions within the year,” says Dana Gunders, President of ReFED, who is seeing positivity around food waste solutions from both sides of the political aisle in the United States.
“It has to be a whole of society approach…We have to press upon the leaders of the world to work together on climate,” says Jamil Ahmad, Director, New York Office, UN Environment Programme.
Multiple speakers pointed to portion sizes as a low-hanging fruit in terms of reducing food waste. Research supports this: According to Gunders, 59 percent of people surveyed say they would go to a different restaurant if it offered different portion sizes.
“The most impactful thing we can do to decrease food waste is changing portion sizes…Giving consumers options like that can enable them to make changes,” says Roni Neff, Professor at Johns Hopkins University, who researches ways to reduce food waste and address climate change through food systems.
And technology plays a big role: Harry Chrispin, Senior Manager of ESG EMEA at Hilton, uses the artificial intelligence system Winnow to track food waste in hotel kitchens automatically. With Winnow, “the previously invisible food waste in the bin is now visible, and chefs can make decisions based on that,” says Chrispin. “Just changing the way we cut fruit and portion fruit, all of these small changes can make a really big difference in food waste,” without compromising the customer experience.
Many factors influence what eaters do and don’t eat, and how they dispose of their food choices: “We make at least 200 different food decisions in a day. Many of them you don’t know you’re making,” says Caleb McClennan, President of RARE. This creates opportunities throughout each day to make positive change. But while small changes like composting and repurposing leftovers and scraps are important tools for change, consumers should also go easy on themselves, says U.S. Representative Chellie Pingree.
“You’re not going to be perfect every day of the week,” says Rep. Pingree. “But the things that you do at home…changing our habits and getting into new habits…all of these things are important to do.”
Eaters can also look to their freezers to help make small but meaningful changes to reduce food waste at home.
“Take advantage of your freezer,” says Alison Bodor, President and CEO of the American Frozen Food Institute. “Whether that’s freezing your own leftovers or buying resealable packages. Be part of the solution because it will take all of us.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Dexter, MD, says that consumers should not forget the power of their voices: “Consumer behavior needs to drive the changes,” she says. “If we are demanding it, it’s easier for people like me to pass the laws.”
“As someone who represents about 800,000 people, getting that outreach really drives our perspective. Reaching out to your elected leaders, sharing what you want—even if you know they’re not aligned—is really important,” says Rep. Dexter. “Americans need to demand better from their government. Politicians need to demand more from themselves.”
Stacy Blondin, Behavioral Science Associate at the World Resources Institute, emphasizes that while there is a significant consumer will to reduce waste, eaters need support from the government, nonprofit, and private sectors. “A large percentage of Americans are already motivated to reduce food waste, but we need these underlying societal support systems” that will enable people to make meaningful change, says Blondin.
The Summit’s conversations continually turned to collaborations as an effective way to amplify change across sectors.
“Co-developing together a solution is truly energizing and powerful. Your coworkers have the answers and power; they meet the customers every day,” says Lorena Lourido Gomez, Head of IKEA Food, IKEA Retail Services, Ingka.
“Nobody really wants to waste food. People are looking for advice on how to do that,” says David Rogers, Director of International Development at WRAP. “And if you can reach people through the cities they live in or the shops they go to, you can really reach everyone.”
Michael Grunwald, Food & Climate Columnist at Canary Media and also a Contributing Writer for The New York Times Opinion, left the audience with a simple call to action for eaters:
“Eat less beef, waste less food. I can give you 50 things to do, and the other 48 combined wouldn’t have as much impact as that,” says Grunwald. And “right now, food waste is an area where we can actually make progress.”
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Photo by Ryan Rose for Food Tank.
