The 2019 Food Waste Summit, hosted by ReFED, invited key stakeholders to share and discuss strategies to achieve a common goal to cut food waste in half by 2030. ReFED is a data-driven, solutions-oriented multi-stakeholder network. So, when they set out to produce a sustainable event, collecting, measuring and reporting on specific data points was crucial.

Four hundred influential thought leaders and decision-makers from across sectors with a shared interest in sustainable food systems, including food businesses, investors, foundations and national nonprofits, governments, innovators and academics, personally experienced this “learning lab” minimizing waste of all kinds.

Let’s look at the event’s initiatives and numbers…

  • Zero waste event.
  • Local, healthy catering focused on whole product utilization minimizing transport to the Bay area and kitchen waste.
  • Normal surplus food at conferences is 20-25% and the Summit’s was 6-8% for a total of only 27 lbs.
  • Name badge holders were eliminated and badges were printed on 100% recycled cardstock and recycled afterward.
  • Water bottles were eliminated saving enough greenhouse gas emissions to take a car off the road for 2,205 miles and saving enough energy to power an average US household for 60 hours.
  • Minimal printed signage produced of 100% cardboard and recyclable Falcon board.

The Conference Sustainability Actions were linked to UN Sustainable Development Goals:

The US Food Waste Summit was awarded the “Visionary” badge based on data in the MeetGreen 2.0 Calculator. Their score was over 30% higher than the average Calculator score.

ReFED and MeetGreen invite you to read more about the inspiring event.