With a third of all food lost or wasted between the farm and the fork, the problem of food waste has never been more in the spotlight and of more importance to the consumer and the industry. This was underlined by a declaration made by Champions 12.3, a new coalition of 30 CEO’s and other leaders, who in January 2016 declared their commitment to accelerate progress towards meeting Target 12.3 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to halve the per capita food waste and food losses by 2030.
As the Chair of the Champions 12.3 coalition, Dave Lewis, the Group Chief Executive of Tesco declared “At Tesco, we’re committed to tackling food waste not only in our own operations but also through strong and effective partnerships with our suppliers and by helping our customers reduce waste and save money.”
Dr Judith Rodin, President, The Rockefeller Foundation stated “Food loss and waste happens all along the global pathway to the plate—from how smallholder farmers harvest and get crops to market, to corporate losses across supply chains, all the way to consumer waste. To succeed in cutting food waste in half, we must take a systemic approach.”
However, as research from Europe has identified, there is a trade-off between food waste and the shopper’s perception of freshness and on-shelf availability. Simply put, reducing food waste to zero in retail stores could quickly lead to frustrated shoppers and a subsequent negative impact on brand equity and top line sales. How do retailers look to understand these trade-offs? How do they find the most profitable balance between lost sales and food waste? What are the key enablers to transforming performance levels?
This two-part webinar series will draw on new academic research on food waste, the real world application of those insights and via a retailer case study, the leadership needed to deliver sustainable performance improvement.
Speakers Karel van Donselaar,Assistant Professor of Retail Operations at Technische Universiteit Eindhoven Rob Broekmeulen,Assistant Professor of Retail Operations at Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
Facilitators Pat Walsh,Vice President, FMI Colin Peacock,Group Program Manager, ECR Community Shrink & OSA Group