Food Waste Intelligence

March is B Corp month, a time specifically devoted to raising awareness of the importance of the unique nature of B Corporations, and to celebrate the work that B Corporations around the world do to positively impact people and planet.

Leanpath team members are highly mission-driven in committing to ensure a sustainable future for all by making food waste prevention and measurement everyday practice in the world’s kitchens, and therefore we are naturally energized by our B Corp status. (That's us in the picture volunteering at an Oregon food bank!)

Leanpath is thrilled to be nominated for the prestigious Earthshot Prize.

The Earthshot Prize seeks to catalyze efforts to repair and regenerate the planet by scaling solutions in five core areas that underpin the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Protect and Restore Nature, Clean our Air, Revive our Oceans, Build a Waste-free World, and Fix our Climate. Each of these five areas is critical, and all are detailed further in the organization’s Roadmap to Regeneration summary, which also includes a simple yet powerful equation that underlies the iniative: Urgent Optimism + Action = Change.

Since beginning our partnership in 2014, Google has prevented 10 million pounds of food from being wasted using Leanpath, the equivalent of eliminating 25,000 metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere.

Michiel Bakker, Google's VP of Global Programs, made the announcement along with news of the company’s ambitious prevention goal:

“To protect our planet and keep it healthy, we need to collectively cut back on food waste — for us at Google, that means doubling down on our efforts to reduce waste in our kitchens and cafes. By 2025, we aim to cut food waste in half for each Googler and send zero food waste to the landfill.”

A new report from Stanford University says that the potency of methane as a contributor to global warming is being dramatically undervalued based on an “arbitrary and unjustified” measuring system put in place by the Kyoto Protocol.

The report is the latest in a growing chorus of international calls to put greater emphasis on reducing methane emissions to address climate change. This greater focus on methane, the primary greenhouse gas released from food waste, puts even more importance on the need to address the food waste crisis as a lever in combating global warming.

When COVID-19 took hold in 2020, one of the first dramatic changes in foodservice was the disappearance of buffets and salad bars. As the industry (and the world) continues to return to something more like a pre-pandemic normal, self-serve operations continue to come back online. Las Vegas, one of the buffet capitals of the world, continues its dining return; Disney Parks continues reopening buffet service; and one of the U.S.’s leading college trend setters, Penn State, just reintroduced self service.  

While this is positive news for the industry, the return of buffets and salad bars brings with it the probability of increased food waste, particularly as staff reacquaint themselves with these service styles.

Here are some best practices to avoid food waste as you bring buffets and salad bars back: