Lisa Bennett
Project Manager
FoodSave
London, UK
Q: What’s the Greater London Authority’s FoodSave initiative all about?
A: By spring 2015 FoodSave’s aim is to support over 240 food sector small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in London to reduce their food waste, divert surplus food to good causes and manage their unavoidable food waste more sustainably. Businesses, particularly those in the hospitality trade, can save quite significant sums of money around waste reduction but it’s also about improving environmental performance and efficiency. The initiative is funded by three parties: the Mayor of London (Boris Johnson), the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB).
Q: What are you looking to achieve? Is there an overarching objective in terms of reducing the UK’s food waste or have the goals been set specifically for FoodSave?
A: The Mayor’s Business Waste Strategy identifies food waste as a priority waste stream for action and goals have been set specifically for FoodSave. We have specific targets to meet over the term of the project. We’re looking to divert over 1,000 tons of food waste from landfill through any of the measures detailed in the food waste pyramid that we are using. We’re also looking to reduce food and food packaging waste by 150 tons. Collectively, we’re looking to save businesses over £360,000 (US$602,000). In addition, it’s about changing behaviors and how businesses operate to ensure that those benefits continue beyond the project.
Q: How does FoodSave work?
A: We work on the principle of the Food Waste Hierarchy for London which is basically a food waste pyramid that prioritizes reducing waste in the first instance since this is the best option, then feeding people in need, before feeding livestock where it’s legally permitted since there are quite a few regulations regarding health and safety. Or, finally, sending waste for recycling by anaerobic digestion or composting rather than to landfill.
Q: When did the scheme start and how did it come about?
A: We started delivering in November 2013, so it’s still a relatively new scheme, and we finish in March 2015. One of the areas for action identified in the Mayor of London’s Business Waste Strategy is food waste because of its environmental impact if sent to landfill as well as the economic opportunities associated with reducing food waste. Another of the Mayor’s priorities is to encourage business support programs, especially for SMEs. So effectively those two objectives have come together in the form of FoodSave.
Q: So, how does FoodSave fit into the overall London Food Strategy?
A: The Mayor of London’s Food Strategy: Healthy & Sustainable Food for London operates across the whole of London’s food system to promote and develop work that meets its aims. The London Food Board has three key priorities for the implementation of this strategy: business and commerce; communities and citizens; and the 33 London boroughs. FoodSave fits within the business and commerce priority.
As set out in The London Food Strategy, the production of food related waste has significant environmental, economic and health impacts. Food related waste includes two key elements: packaging waste and organic food waste. These elements require different approaches to tackle them. There is a need to consider both household and commercial waste streams and to adopt two key waste interventions: waste reduction/reuse (i.e. reducing the amount of waste produced in the first place or reusing goods in their current form); and recycling (i.e. the reprocessing of waste either into the same product or a different one) or composting.
Q: Who is running FoodSave?
A: The Greater London Authority manages the project and I’m the project manager. We’re working with two delivery partners who directly support the businesses involved. One partner is the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA), which is working with hospitality businesses (restaurants, hotels, pubs, quick service restaurants and canteens). The other is Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming (or Sustain), which is working with other types of food businesses including wholesalers, street food vendors, farmers’ markets, food retailers, food manufacturers, food growers and farmers. We’re offering support to all SMEs involved in the food sector in London.
Q: How do your delivery partners the SRA and Sustain fit into the picture?
A: The SRA or Sustain work with each business to identify their actual food waste. A lot of businesses don’t necessarily know how much food they’re wasting since all of their waste often all goes into one bin. So the SRA and Sustain help each business to identify their waste and then they work together to find ways to reduce that waste or to better use any surplus. It can really help SMEs to improve their efficiency, their environmental performance and save money. This support is also completely free because its a funded project.
Q: Do the solutions to combating food waste vary significantly between businesses or do you carry out set strategies to tackle the problem?
A: It does vary and it definitely varies between the two delivery partners because they’re working with very different types of businesses. For the hospitality sector the SRA generally offers support for four weeks. They use a technology called Winnow which measures on a scale all of the food waste in one bin. It also allows the business to type in the kind of food that they’re wasting to specifically identify what’s being thrown away. Then they look at different solutions. For a restaurant that could be anything from changing a portion size and ordering a different volume of food to changing the menu slightly and using surplus food in other dishes. Whereas with the other businesses – the manufacturers, wholesalers, etc – the solutions are more bespoke just because their businesses do vary significantly. But again it’s a similar strategy in that it’s first about identifying what’s being thrown away and then looking at better options to that.
Q: How bad is food waste in London and the UK generally? How much is wasted every year?
A: We estimate that food waste from the commercial sector in London is in excess of a quarter of a million tons per year. Food waste is a significant issue across the UK and addressing it can also help businesses to save money in the process. According to figures compiled by UK resource efficiency expert WRAP, a total of 3.42 million tons of waste is disposed of by the UK hospitality and foodservice industries every year. Of that total, 1.47 million tons are sent for disposal. Some 600,000 tons (or 41%) of the waste from pubs, restaurants, hotels and quick service restaurants is food waste. And, in general, the food sector produces 0.4 million tons of avoidable food waste per year, while a further 0.2 million tons of unavoidable food waste is produced every year.
Q: What are the knock-on effects from wasting food?
A: If food waste goes to landfill it releases greenhouse gas emissions. The whole lifecycle of food production also takes a lot of energy and water and other inputs to produce the food in the first place so if you’re throwing it away you’re losing all of that too. It makes both business and environmental sense to reduce your waste.
Q: How many companies are currently involved?
A: At the moment we’ve completed support with 15 businesses and we are still offering ongoing support to over 23 companies. Soon we will start to work with many more businesses. But we are looking for more SMEs to work with. If you are a food SME in London who is eligible for the scheme then the support is completely free. We will be exhibiting at the London Produce Show and Conference for that reason – to make people aware of the program.
Q: What are the requirements for SMEs to participate?
A: They must be an SME that is based in one of the 33 London boroughs. To be an SME you have to have under 250 full-time employees or equivalent and a turnover of less than £42.5 million (US$71 million) or a balance sheet of less than £36.4 million (US$61 million). No more than 25% of the SME should be owned by a larger company either. All of the criteria is set out on our website.
Q: How many of those participants that are already involved belong to the fresh fruit and vegetable industry?
A: We are currently supporting around five wholesale markets and a couple of juice companies, plus various others. Quite a few of the companies that Sustain is supporting are definitely related to the fresh produce industry in one way or another. Sustain is currently offering ongoing support to 17 businesses, plus there are many more companies in discussions about taking part.
Q: Are you happy with the take-up for the scheme to date?
A: We are happy so far but we would also encourage more businesses to get involved. FoodSave is completely free to join for food sector SMEs in London and there are many benefits to businesses that get involved.
Q: How can further businesses join the scheme?
A: Either contact myself or one of our delivery partners (the SRA or Sustain). We would first check their eligibility before assigning one of our partners to support their business. SRA or Sustain would go out to the business to assess how much food is being wasted and then work with the SME to support them in coming up with solutions. It’s a very hands-on support service with solutions that vary depending on each SME and what they need. But the SME is still very much involved and they often come up with the solutions themselves. Ultimately, the scheme is designed to help support behavior change and to raise awareness about food waste. Until a business knows what waste it is producing it’s difficult to tackle it, and until they know what the options are they often can’t make changes.
Q: Are companies in general quite shocked at the level of food they waste waste once it has been identified?
A: Some businesses are already more aware than others. Some have been quite surprised at how much waste they are producing and also how much they could save by reducing their waste.
Q: How much can companies save by reducing their food waste?
A: From the results of the first 14 hospitality sector businesses that have taken part over a four-week period we estimate that their food waste has reduced by an average of 1.5 tons per year. If they were to continue they would each save on average £6,000 (US$10,000) a year just on the cost associated with buying the food in the first place. For all the other businesses, including those involved in the fresh fruit and vegetable trade, we should have the first initial results in July. We’ve already got some case studies on specific SMEs which people can read on the SRA website. We will also be using that data to inform future work.
Q: Why can businesses in the hospitality trade in particular make significant cost savings by addressing their food waste?
A: There’s a lot of potential in the hospitality sector to prevent food waste from being created in the first place, and this is where the best cost savings can be found. For example, if you divert waste to people in need you may not necessarily save money as a result but you are saving money by not paying to send that waste to landfill anymore, plus you’re helping a charity and the cost savings will be realized further down the chain. You are also ensuring that surplus food can be eaten by others instead of being disposed.
Q: Do you feel that real progress has already been made since the start of the scheme in November or are there still a number of step changes to be made before spring 2015?
A: A lot of the businesses have become really enthusiastic about the project. Once they see how much they can reduce and save then generally the staff get behind the scheme and become really interested in the project. So we do have confidence that they will continue in the same vein once the project ends.
Q: On that note, what is the end game for FoodSave? What will happen once the funding ends?
A: The project has funding until spring 2015 and we’re already working on its legacy. A lot of materials are being produced, such as training manuals and online information from our partners, so that businesses can easily find out how they can reduce their waste or use their surplus to feed people and livestock or start food waste recycling. That information will still be available once the project has finished, plus there will be a lot of data from the 240 businesses involved which will show the differences that have been made. All of the information from the initiative will be published on the website throughout the project. Both partners are involved with sustainable food practices so they already carry out work relating to food waste.
Source: Perishable News
