Sarah Kolansky Associate Director of Sustainability at Graham - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Sarah Kolansky Associate Director of Sustainability at Graham Partners

Sarah Kolansky

Associate Director of Sustainability at Graham Partners

• Joined the Graham Partners Sustainability team in February 2017
• From 2010-2017: Climate Change and Sustainability for ICF
• Led Inventory of GHG emissions for Yard Trimmings and

Food Scraps for EPA

• Worked with USDA Climate Change Division to create tools

to emissions from food production, including Animal Agriculture, Crop Management

• Worked on EPA’s WARM model which estimates changes to

emissions from different waste management decisions

• B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering degree from Bucknell

University

• Master of Environmental Studies degree from the University of

Pennsylvania

• Introduction
• Evolution of America’s Relationship with Food
• Impacts of Food Waste
• New Demands for Discarded Produce
• How Does this Affect a Company’s Bottom Line?
• Breakout into Groups
• Q&A

Outline for Today

The Extraordinary Life and Times of a Strawberry

How Much Food is Actually Wasted?

Every day, America wastes enough food to fill the seats at the Rose Bowl Stadium

EVOLUTION OF AMERICA’S RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD

Our Value of Food has Changed

Our Value of Food has Changed

Our Value of Food has Changed

Our Value of Food has Changed

And Our View of Food has Changed

Food and calories are fast…

And Our View of Food has Changed

And cheap!

And Our View of Food has Changed

Customers expect perfect produce

IMPACTS OF FOOD WASTE

Key Food Waste Facts

133 billion pounds of the 430 billion pounds of food produced in the U.S. in 2010 was not available for human consumption at the retail and consumer levels. Equal to:

• $161.6 billion (as purchased

at retail prices)

• 31 percent of food produced
• 141 trillion calories per year,
• r 1,249 calories per capita

per day

Social Impacts

We waste roughly 30% of food produced, yet, in the US,

• 50 million people (13% of the

population) lived in food insecure households in 2011

• Over 35% of Americans are
• bese and over 70% of

Americans are overweight or

• bese.

This doesn’t add up!

Environmental Impacts

Agriculture uses:

• 70% of freshwater for irrigation
• 38% of ice-free land
• ≈30% of global energy consumption

(agricultural machinery, fertilizer, transport, drying, cooling, processing, manufacturing, packaging, retail, domestic refrigeration, cooking, etc.)

US annual food wastage represents:

• 300 million barrels of oil (4% of total US
• il consumption)
• ¼ of annual U.S. freshwater

consumption

Climate Change Impacts

Food waste that is sent to a landfill creates methane gas If it is not captured by the landfill, then the methane is released into the atmosphere Methane (CH4) is 23 times as potent of a greenhouse gas (GHG) than CO2 Accounts for 25% of U.S. methane emissions

Environmental Impacts

Future Impacts

By 2050, the world population will be 9.725 billion… How will we feed a billion more people?

Food Waste Hierarchy

Source Reduction is the best thing that you can do to reduce impact from food waste. Perception that composting is the best practice, but there are many uses above composting that should be pursued. Wide consensus that landfilling should be the last resort, not the default.

Food Waste In the Supply Chain

All types of food are wasted throughout each phase of the supply chain

NEW DEMANDS FOR DISCARDED PRODUCE

The Market is Creating a Demand for Food Waste

Source: ReFED Food Waste Innovators Database

Number of Food Waste Innovation Organizations

Companies are Sprouting Up

And All Over the World

Whole Foods, Walmart, and dozens of start-ups are finding new markets for imperfect produce?

And Over the US

Some with Social Missions

Others that are for Profit

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT A COMPANY’S BOTTOM LINE?

Consumers are Seeking Socially Responsible Companies

Sustainability and Shareholder Value

• In the end, companies have a responsibility to shareholders to create value
• The fastest-growing cause for shareholders is sustainability
• High environment, social governance (ESG) ratings correlates to:
• Lower cost of capital in 100% of the studies
• Market-based outperformance in 89%
• Accounting-based outperformance in 85%

Wasted Food = Wasted $$$

• Shrink in production,

processing, and retail means dollars wasted

• Finding a market for this

shrink can mean that this is not written off as a loss

• Laws in place to protect

company who donates in good faith

BREAKOUT INTO GROUPS

Breakout Into Groups

• How does your organization think about sustainability?
• A. Responding to customer/consumer demands
• B. Environmental impact (e.g., energy/water/waste efficiency)
• C. More of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) effort, based around

corporate citizenship

• Is there buy-in from top-level management on sustainability?
• Where is the shrink in your supply chain? What do you do to with this waste?

How much does that cost you/the supply chain to dispose of it?

• Think back to the food waste hierarchy. Are there better uses for the food than

the status quo?

• How does HPP fit in with these sustainability goals? Can HPP help to achieve

goals by extending shelf life and therefore reducing food waste?

Q&A

Sarah Kolansky Email: skolansky@grahampartners.net Twitter: @skolansky

Thanks For Participating

• http://www.foodwastemovie.com/
• http://www.adcouncil.org/Our-Campaigns/Family-Community/Reducing-Food-Waste
• https://www.usda.gov/oce/foodwaste/
• https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food
• https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-food-IP.pdf
• https://today.law.harvard.edu/food-law-and-policy-clinic-releases-short-film-on-food-waste-in-america/
• https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/dating-game-report.pdf
• https://www.refed.com/downloads/ReFED_Report_2016.pdf
• https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/43833/43680_eib121.pdf?v=41817

Other, more technical information

• https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-02/documents/2017_chapter_7_waste.pdf
• https://www.epa.gov/smm/advancing-sustainable-materials-management-facts-and-figures

Food Waste Resources

THANK YOU!