Its clients and teams will focus on reducing food surplus, help in building partnerships with charitable organisations for the collection and donation of excess food to local communities, partnerships with activists and influencers and marketing materials to raise awareness of ways to save at home.
Roughly one-third of the food produced globally is either lost or wasted every year, and in the UK alone the foodservice sector throws away one million tonnes of food, 75% of which could have been eaten in some form.
In the UK, Compass has teamed up with Fareshare, online food redistribution charities; Plan Zheroes, Olio and Too Good to Go, as well as local charities and community groups.
Dominic Blakemore, chief executive at Compass Group, said: “Food waste is a serious problem for the world today, and as the global leader in food service, we are determined to play our part in driving change.
“Working with our suppliers, partners, clients and consumers across the 50 countries we operate in, we are focused on educating our teams and our customers on how they can play their part in cutting food waste, today and every day.”
Launched by Compass Group USA in 2017, Stop Food Waste Day is an annual event to raise awareness of the issue of food waste and encourage the industry, from farm to fork, to reduce the amount of food thrown away.
Compass is working across 50 countries with its suppliers, employees and customers to deliver solutions to address the problem.
In the UK, other activities include:
- Partnering with WRAP to provide a range of leftover food recipes at its main head offices;
- Weekly 5-minute briefings to help on-site teams to take action in the lead up to Stop Food Waste Day;
- Poster and social media campaign using the hashtag #stopfoodwasteday to drive interest
Since 2015, one of its clients, HSBC, has reduced its food waste by 60% - which represents 650 tonnes of food waste avoided. Following a successful deployment in the UK, Compass plans to roll out food waste management systems across further units globally in 2019, helping clients to track progress on reducing food waste.
Compass’ other achievements in 2018 in the UK include:
- Compass’ UK distribution centers donated nearly 10 tonnes of surplus food to FareShare, the UK’s largest charity fighting hunger and food waste
- 3,500 tonnes of food waste were sent for anaerobic digestion, where it is broken down to create biogas and nutrient-rich fertiliser