Although efficiently recovering excess food resources for downstream applications (feeding people and animals, creating energy, or composting) is beneficial, preventing food waste is the most impactful opportunity for people and planet – optimizing resource efficiency and minimizing environmental degradation.

The world cannot sustainably feed 9.6 billion citizens by 2050 while wasting  between a third to half of the global food supply. Furthermore, food waste is a critical link in the food-water-energy nexus challenge and leading foodservice organizations, which serve millions of meals per day, can play a pivotal role in addressing it.

Leanpath has made it its mission to make food waste prevention and measurement everyday practice in the world’s kitchens. It’s food-waste prevention platform is offered on a subscription basis in multiple sectors, including colleges and universities, healthcare, hospitality, and with enterprise customers such as Google, Aramark, and Sodexo. Google alone has prevented more than 3,000 tonnes of food waste from going to landfill since partnering with Leanpath in 2015. Leanpath typically achieves a 50% reduction in food waste at client sites, reduces food costs between 2% and 8%, and generates 300% to 400% ROI.

In the process, we assist one-planet compatibility by conserving resources for the future, mitigating the impacts of climate change by minimizing all of the environmental externalities that would otherwise occur in the production and distribution of that food, and freeing resources for other beneficial societal purposes (such as addressing root cause issues of hunger).

Espigoladors was founded in 2014 to address food waste, food insecurity, and social exclusion. The keystone of its business model is organizing gleanings, where volunteers gather fruits and vegetable crops that are not profitable for farmers to commercially harvest.

Since 2015, 1380 tonnes of food that wouldn’t fit the market’s standards for size, shape, and looks, were thus prevented from rotting in the fields. Each gleaning requires the farmer’s formal permission and scheduling agreement. Volunteers and their families can keep a small part for personal use. A significant share of the bounty is donated to local food banks. What remains is processed into veggie pâtés, sauces and jams by es im-perfect®, the social brand created by Espigoladors which supports 11 full-time jobs. Employees were hired among socially and economically vulnerable local residents, including members of the Roma community and immigrants from North Africa and South America. The organization also welcomes non-violent minor offenders who need to perform their court-mandated community-service.

To date, its operations have brought 115 farmers on board as well as many volunteers, preventing 875 tonnes of CO2 emissions from food waste, providing the equivalent of more than 4 million of meals, and saving 886 million liters of water.

Increasingly, Espigoladors is growing its mission on a crucial front: education. Its staff holds food waste and sustainability awareness workshops with children and youth in local schools.

The organisation has been enjoying a prime location, with an abundance of farmland while in the immediate proximity of a large urban center (Barcelona) with high sustainability awareness. Their advice to anyone interested in launching a similar project? “Go out and invest time and effort in an in-depth solid market study.”

Check out our portrait of the Espigoladors.

Loi Garot’s main tenet makes it illegal for supermarkets with a surface area of more than 400 m2 to dispose of food that is still perfectly safe for consumption. Instead, they must donate unwanted food surpluses to at least one non-profit organization who serves the underprivileged.

Decree No. 2019-302, which entered into effect on 1 January 2020, clarifies the obligation of retailers to have a food donation quality management plan that includes raising awareness among all employees about the fight against food waste and specific trainings for staff in charge of donation operations.

By February 2018, 93% of supermarkets targeted by the law were donating unwanted food surpluses, according to IPSOS6, compared to 33% before the law came into effect. By February 2019, food donations had increased between 15% and 50% in volume, depending on the county, since 2015.

These outcomes were research and published in a EY study commissioned by the French government. One objective of the study, published in 2020, was to provide inputs and recommendations for extending the scope of the law to the catering and agri-food sectors, with a view to balancing trade relations in the agricultural and food sector and promote healthy and sustainable food — as provisioned by Loi Garot.

Nearly 10 million tonnes of food products are diverted from human consumption each year in France, according to the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME). Production and processing would respectively account for 32% and 21% of food, followed by distribution at 14%. Households remain the main source of waste (33%).