Aramark
At a Glance
Industry
Food Services
Project Type
Food and Agriculture
Year
2022
Location
Philadelphia, PA
Summary
Brooke Seegan identified strategies to measure and reduce post-consumer food waste at Aramark.
Goals
Aramark is looking to reduce their food waste by 50% by the year 2030. Post-consumer food waste is challenging to measure and can make up a significant portion of food waste generated in the food service industry. Aramark enlisted Brooke Seegan as their first EDF Climate Corps fellow to get a complete picture of post-consumer food waste in the company’s operations.
Solutions
Seegan approached the problem in two parts:
- Measuring the impacts of post-consumer food waste to show its scope. After reviewing available methodologies of measuring volume and impact of post-consumer waste, Seegan estimated the financial value of plate waste on the enterprise level. Seegan also calculated the environmental impact of plate waste at over 250 college residential dining facilities.
- Recommendations for future measurements and reduction strategies. Seegan presented operational improvements to align with leading protocols and improve future baseline measurements. After speaking with several operators in different lines of business, she trained operators on main causes of food waste and best practices for waste minimization.
Potential Impact
Using Seegan’s proposed mix of reduction strategies and educational campaigns, Aramark should be able to reduce post-consumer food waste in their operations. This has further co-benefits including emissions reductions, food procurement savings, and better positions them to achieve their 50% food waste reduction goal. Seegan’s project also helped Aramark revitalize internal conversations regarding food waste reductions across the company. This work was key in supporting the development of the next generation food waste strategy including updates to training materials and internal resources as well as food donation programming and sampling techniques.