Food Waste Intelligence

Kathy Cacciola, Google's Global Sustainability Lead - Food Program, recently participated in a panel discussion at the ReFed Food Waste Summit titled "Subtle but Successful: Hidden Solutions to Food Waste." As a Leanpath client, Google has made significant strides in food waste reduction, driven by a public goal of reducing food waste by 50% per Googler by the end of 2025 and achieving zero food waste to landfill. Here are the takeaways from this ReFed discussion.

The King Edward’s Trust is 10 secondary schools and 10,500 students in Birmingham, England, with foodservice operated by Alliance in Partnership (AIP)/Sodexo. Since 2023, the school kitchen teams have tracked and prevented food waste using Leanpath’s intelligent food waste management system and together have reduced their waste by 40 percent, with a reduction in the value of their food waste of 50 percent.

For foodservice operators, managing costs has always been a balancing act—but in today’s economy, that balance is becoming harder to maintain. Rising food prices, supply chain disruptions, and inflationary pressures are already squeezing margins, and now, new tariffs on imported goods are set to make food even more expensive. With these financial challenges looming, preventing food waste is no longer just a sustainability goal—it’s a crucial business strategy for survival.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has released an easy-to-use calculator that allows foodservice operations and others to calculate the methane emissions they’ve avoided by preventing food waste going to landfill. When food decomposes in the landfill, it generates methane, a greenhouse gas that is more than 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere. According to the EPA, wasted food causes 58 percent of methane emissions from landfills.

Compass Group Australia has cut its total food waste by 34% since 2022 using Leanpath. The results were reported in Compass Group’s 2024 Sustainability Report. The report highlights: “Over the last three years, our Australian business has continued to deploy Leanpath’s industry leading technology into over 200 sites across the country. By using the system, they have been able to track the total weight of food items repurposed. This year, a reported 45,000kg of food that would have otherwise been wasted, has been utilised.”