Supporting organisations to understand, measure, report and reduce food waste across the value chain and impact wider food system transformation
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Food loss and waste is as much a social issue as it is an environmental responsibility.
Currently, around one-third of all food produced is lost or wasted while there are around 785 million people living in hunger.
The UN estimates that food loss and waste generates up to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. To put the scale of this into context, this is almost five times more than the aviation sector. Addressing and reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from food waste is therefore not only essential but also a fundamental step in any food company’s decarbonisation strategy and to tackling the challenges of climate change.
By closing the loop in food production and re-establishing the value in food itself, we can reduce the demand for food to be grown, in turn lessening the environmental footprint and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This is becoming ever important in the context of a growing global population set to hit 9 billion by 2050. Food is grown to be eaten and it is important that as much food as possible is used for this purpose.
What are the benefits of focusing on food loss and waste for your business?
- 1 billion tonnes (or 912 trillion calories) of food is wasted annually.
- This food could feed the 11% of people that live in hunger.
- Addressing food waste could help create more equity in the food system.
- Responsible management of food waste can help protect brand and reputational risk.
- A strategy to tackle food waste can ladder up to broader corporate ESG goals and commitments.
- Complying with voluntary reporting commitments ahead of any mandatory requirements:
- Reducing food waste has a direct impact on emissions, carbon, water, and land use footprint.
- Food Waste reduction lessens the burden on our food system to grow new food, protecting ecosystems and biodiversity from further degradation.
- Food waste management helps improve supply chain resilience and continuity.
- Irresponsible food waste management is a $850 billion cost to the food system.
- Effective food waste management can lead to anywhere between 3 – 6% COGS savings.
- WRAP have estimated that there is around $1.6k saving for every tonne of food waste saved.
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How we help clients
Anthesis has extensive end-to-end knowledge and experience helping clients to understand, measure, report and reduce food waste across the value chain. We work with global food retailers, manufacturers, growers, investment communities and industry bodies to advance food loss and waste reductions in line with decarbonisation and social impact commitments.
Our food loss and waste team offer deep subject knowledge and expertise applied to your business environment and working within the context of global food loss and waste agreements and protocols with the goal of having a positive impact on wider food system transformation.
We can assist your business to grow sustainably by:
- Understanding where you are on your food loss and waste journey and how this ladders up to broader sustainability and climate strategies.
- Establishing education and awareness programs and training around the importance of, and ways to tackle food loss and waste in your business.
- Assistance in determining food waste & surplus definitions, and data collection methodologies.
- Food loss and waste reporting in accordance with local geographic, industry and within voluntary frameworks and agreements.
- External stakeholder engagement strategy and implementation to collect, measure and report food waste upstream in supply chains.
- Food waste hotspot analysis and waste reduction strategy development including roadmaps, intervention piloting and implementation.
- Exploring circular economy i.e. Upcycled food propositions and innovative methods to close the loop in food.
- Food re-distribution partnership development as a method to tackle food surplus.
- Development of consumer campaigns to influence positive behaviour towards food waste and reframe attitudes to food and waste.
Our Food Loss and Waste Experts
We are the world’s leading science-based advisory, purpose-driven agency and digitally-empowered activator. And always welcome inquiries and partnerships to drive positive change together.
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Insights
Sustainable Products and Circularity Services
Our team combines extensive industry knowledge with a forward-thinking approach, tailoring solutions to align with each organisation’s unique goals. We help companies transform the products they create and the business models they use to engage customers in order to drive better environmental and social impact, while expanding their market opportunity and business resilience.
We also help technology and infrastructure providers, governments, investors, and others to ensure that circular end-of-life solutions exist for products and packaging through effective resource recovery.
From designing eco-friendly products and implementing efficient waste reduction and reuse strategies to addressing toxic materials and transitioning towards a circular economy, we are dedicated to empowering your organisation to thrive sustainably.
Product Stewardship & Sustainability
Anthesis works with clients to understand and improve the sustainability of their products across the product lifecycle and across impact areas (carbon, plastic, toxicity, etc.), while maintaining or elevating product technical and business performance.
We help you embed sustainability principles, considering environmental and social stewardship, throughout your business. With expertise in product development, materials science, circular design and more, we bring subject matter expertise, efficient tools, and a comprehensive view to help improve products, your product development process, and your supply chain.
Product Stewardship Services
Circular Business Models
We help organisations to adopt circular principles, turning waste into resources and creating new revenue streams.
We specialise in transforming how businesses develop products to optimise circular design and innovative material use, and how they can unlock circular revenue models such as resale, subscription, or product as a service. We also drive the circular economy by helping businesses to become more resource efficient, and reduce waste throughout the value chain.
Circularity Services
Lifecycle Assessments
As a global leader in delivering actionable LCA expertise, our services include strategy sessions to help businesses to determine what LCA can do for them, impact improvement workshops, LCA support, and Scope 3 and LCA integration.
Unique to our LCA services is a focus on how LCA results can be actioned to drive tangible sustainability improvements in line with client objectives, such as Net Zero targets. We have experience of all major LCA methodologies and software systems and support businesses with bespoke frameworks to fit their requirements.
LCA Services
Compliance
We guide organisations through the intricate landscape of environmental regulations, ensuring adherence and proactive compliance.
With expertise ranging from REACH, ROHS, and Right to Repair to Ecodesign for Sustainable Products (ESPR), Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) E5, our team specialises in product, packaging, and circularity-related environmental compliance including governance plans,data collection, compliance management, and reporting across the product lifecycle.
Compliance Services
Certifications
By recognising the diversity of product certifications, we help clients to identify and secure the highest value certifications to meet their objectives. We also enable clients to establish and implement efficient, robust governance plans to pursue and maintain certification.
From assessing the sustainability claims of products to communicating credentials with stakeholders, we offer comprehensive services around implementing, upgrading and substantiating environmental product claims and certifications in a targeted, streamlined way.
Certification Services
Sustainable Chemistry & Materials
As experts in material selection, innovative technologies, and chemical regulation, we provide comprehensive chemical management and materials support throughout the supply chain.
From facilitating collaboration in REACH Consortia to aiding SMEs with complete chemicals and materials management outsourcing, we navigate regulatory complexities with a sustainability lens. Our services extend beyond compliance to incorporate green chemistry principles, foster innovation, and help clients to understand the impact of evolving environmental criteria on their businesses. We provide support in the decarbonization of materials and chemicals, establishing material circularity, analyzing the tradeoffs of using alternative chemicals and materials, and addressing both social and environmental impacts related to chemical and material use.
Chemistry Services
Material Services
Packaging
Our packaging engineers provide the technical expertise required to ensure that organisations implement meaningful baselines and packagingstrategies, and more sustainable packaging design.
We combine our clients’ stewardship goals, voluntary commitments and regulatory obligations to create a packaging strategy that optimises their environmental and economic outcomes.
Packaging ServiCEs
Plastics
Our specialist polymer and plastics teamsare trusted advisors to some of the most well-known global brands, retailers, investors and polymer producers, in addition to governments and industry associations.
Expertise and experience along the whole plastics value chain is supported by specialist knowledge from our Plastics Recycling Technology Hub, which enables us to put our clients on a strategic pathway to sustainability.
Plastics Services
Waste & Resource Recovery
From operational and value chain waste analytics to market assessments, our services cover circular economy support, waste footprinting, and end-to-end assistance in waste reduction and diversion.
We provide expertise across waste data, metrics, and reporting and strategy, including roadmaps for resource efficiency with digital solutions.
Waste Services
