At Leanpath we have long recognized the connection between food waste and climate change. That critical connection is foundational to our mission of making food waste prevention and measurement everyday practice in the world’s kitchens.
The food waste-climate connection has been amplified by many organizations. For example, the UNFAO famously noted years ago that if ranked as a country, food waste would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions behind the U.S. and China. The World Wildlife Fund recently found that global food wastage accounts for up to 10% of global emissions. And the Project Drawdown team cited food waste reduction as one of the top solutions to climate change.
In addition, UK-based WRAP highlighted a critical point in a recent report (Food Loss and Waste: From Commitments to Action) that bears repeating: We cannot achieve net zero emissions without tackling food loss and waste.
We are all seeing signs of emissions-driven climate change around the world in recent weeks in the form of record temperatures, drought, fires, and floods, and we think it is important to highlight stories reflecting those signals.
We asked some of our Leanpath team members from around the globe to weigh in on how they are experiencing the impacts of climate change in their respective regions.
In Uruguay, climate-induced drought conditions are so severe that the government was recently forced to
“Never in Uruguayan history have people had to buy water, and we were really proud of that. A few years ago, I visited other countries in South America and noted that many people had to buy bottled water for usage. I told them that In Uruguay, if you want a glass of water, you can just ask for it at any location because you can drink water from the tap. Sadly, I cannot say that today. I’m really ashamed to tell others here today that if you need water, you should probably buy it.”
Similarly, China has also experienced record temperatures in recent weeks. Qiao Zheng of our Customer Success team chimed in on the situation as follows:
"’Have you experienced electricity cuts due to grid overload?’ This has become my phobia for this summer. I
Just as Qiao finished providing her thoughts for this post, her apartment suffered a power outage.
In sum, the world is clearly at an inflection point regarding the climate crisis.
All regions of the globe are feeling the effects of emissions-driven global warming,
The food system, and particularly food waste, are key drivers of greenhouse gas emissions – and preventing the occurrence of food waste is a key solution. In fact, the ReFED team recently showed that the majority of the emissions impact of wasted food is upstream, from production through storage and distribution – further validating the importance of food waste prevention.
At Leanpath, our team members see the connection between food waste and climate change. Echoing the WRAP report, we know that we cannot achieve net zero emissions without tackling food loss and waste.
We will continue to highlight that connection, and our team will continue to work to accelerate the needed change in the optimal way – by preventing the occurrence of food waste in foodservice operations.
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