4 ways to cut campus food waste, from colleges to corporates

这篇文章改编自格林比斯的循环每周新闻通讯，即周五。订阅here.

您可能已经知道，所有生产的食物中约有三分之一（每年约有10亿吨）从未被食用。据据称ref的分析.

Looking at one slice of the challenge, the U.S. restaurant sectorgenerates (PDF)11.4 million tons of food waste annually. That’s just 1.1 percent of the global total, but it still carries a hefty price tag: more than $25 billion, when taking into account the growing, transporting, processing and disposing of food that is ultimately wasted. But a growing number of foodservice operators are finding that curbing food waste simultaneously can keep edible food out of landfills and keep money in their pockets.

According toThe Business Case for Reducing Food Loss and Waste: Restaurants (PDF), a 2017 report by Champions 12.3 — a coalition working to achieve Target 12.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals, which focuses on cutting food waste and loss in half by 2030 —restaurants saved $7 in operating costs on average for every $1 they invested in reducing kitchen food waste. The analysis looked at data from 114 restaurants across 12 countries and found that 76 percent of the sites recouped their investment within the first year of implementing a food waste reduction program, and 89 percent of the sites recouped their investment within two years. Not too shabby.

The analysis looked at data from 114 restaurants across 12 countries and found 76% recouped their investment within the first year of implementing a food waste reduction program.

So, what it will take to halve food waste from corporate and institutional foodservice operations by the end of the next decade? Here are a few places to begin:

1. Collect the right data.Knowing the scale of your food waste problem is a good place to start. Measuring and tracking waste varies in levels of sophistication, from using cameras, scales and scanners to lower-tech options, such as spreadsheets. Working with the likes of Google and Sodexo,LeanPath以其行业领导而闻名，可以帮助公司在餐饮服务环境中追踪和防止食物浪费。

2.Shift consumer norms.In all-you-can-eat facilities, try using smaller plates and eliminating trays from the dining experience. When the University of Massachusetts Amherst removed trays from its dining halls in 2009, itreduceddiners’ food waste by 30 percent.

3. Design menus to reduce food waste.By reducing the number of ingredients and repurposing trim from food prep and overproduced dishes, kitchens can maximize the use of all ingredients and menu items.

4. Rescue uneaten food.虽然未食用的食物仍然是人类消费的安全，但请确保将其拯救和消费。Copia,奥利奥和重复are just three of the many companies working with campus and other foodservice operations to navigate the logistical, food safety and policy concerns of rescuing uneaten food that otherwise might go to waste.

这些只是您的公司校园开始应对其食物浪费挑战的广泛策略，工具和最佳实践清单。（我强烈推荐Refed的2018年餐厅食物垃圾行动指南更深入地研究这个主题）。

Ultimately, cutting food waste in line with global targets will require more than just implementing a couple of internal initiatives at your campus or institution.

“最终，按照全球目标削减食物浪费将不仅需要在您的校园或机构实施几个内部计划，”FLW Protocol at the World Resources Institute, told me. "It requires looking up and down the food chain, gathering the right data, leveraging your purchasing power, investing in emerging technologies and thinking more regionally about how to keep food out of landfills and on plates."

Are you working to take a bite out of food waste? To tackle this problem, we’re bringing together stakeholders from across the foodservice value chain working to reduce or eliminate wasted food in restaurants, cafeterias and catering operations inside companies, public agencies, hospitals, hospitality venues and other facilities.

[Later this month at VERGE (Oct. 22-24, Oakland , California), we will convene a half-day, invitation-only working session, in collaboration with WRI, focused on accelerating the technologies, partnerships and best practices that are dramatically reducing or eliminating food waste from corporate and institutional foodservice operations. Request an invite on our website.]