Learn how to reduce food waste in your workplace and promote a more sustainable and circular economy. Find out how to assess, educate, implement, and evaluate your actions.

Offering smaller portions, reducing plate sizes, taking feedback from employees, using data insights to engineer waste out of menus by replacing or refining dishes, training kitchen team members, and highlighting moments like Earth Day or Stop Food Waste Day are all good practices that can help cut waste for employees.

How can you encourage employees to reduce food waste in the workplace?

Food waste is a major environmental and social problem that affects millions of people and contributes to climate change, land degradation, and resource depletion. As a responsible employer, you can play a vital role in reducing food waste in your workplace and promoting a more sustainable and circular economy. In this article, we will share some practical tips on how you can encourage your employees to adopt better habits and behaviors around food consumption, storage, and disposal.

1 Assess your current situation

The first step to reduce food waste in your workplace is to understand how much and what kind of food is being wasted, where, when, and why. You can conduct a simple audit by measuring and recording the amount of food that is thrown away in your cafeteria, kitchen, break rooms, and vending machines. You can also survey your employees to find out their attitudes, preferences, and challenges regarding food waste. This will help you identify the main sources and causes of food waste in your workplace and set realistic and measurable goals for improvement.

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David Jackson

Marketing Director at Winnow 🍏 Artificial intelligence tools to help chefs run more profitable and sustainable kitchens
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At a very simple level, weighing your restaurant's plate waste daily gives you data to baseline and then compare over time. Also capturing daily covers served helps created a normalised metric (g food waste per cover) which adjusts for seasonality. Digital tools like Winnow's VisionPW system captures photos automatically and can be used to perform compositional analyses of the food waste giving more granular data which can feed operational changes, menu engineering and communications with employees.

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2 Educate and engage your employees

The next step is to raise awareness and educate your employees about the environmental and social impacts of food waste, as well as the benefits of reducing it. You can use various channels and methods to communicate your message, such as posters, newsletters, emails, videos, webinars, or workshops. You can also invite experts, partners, or stakeholders to share their insights and experiences on food waste reduction. The key is to make your message clear, relevant, and appealing to your employees and to encourage them to participate and contribute their ideas and feedback.

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David Jackson

Marketing Director at Winnow 🍏 Artificial intelligence tools to help chefs run more profitable and sustainable kitchens
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Winnow works with staff restaurants all over the world. We've run multiple experiments using our measurement technology on how to engage team members. Engaging employees via screens and signage should be done sensitively, reinforce positive behaviours (e.g. coming back for seconds where food is low cost or free), and position the norm as no or very low food waste. Signage should avoid unintentionally reinforcing negative behaviours (e.g. every day we waste xxx food or our food waste has increased per person). In a study run with LSE's behavioural science faculty we found that 'anthropomorphised' food drove more behaviour change vs messaging around water, climate or limited resources.

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3 Implement and incentivize good practices

The third step is to implement and incentivize good practices that can help your employees reduce food waste in their daily work routines. For instance, you can provide reusable containers, cutlery, and plates, as well as offer smaller portions and more variety in your cafeteria menu. Additionally, you should donate or compost any leftover or surplus food from your cafeteria or kitchen, while partnering with local charities, farmers, or composting facilities that can accept and use your food waste. Finally, you can reward your employees for reducing food waste with vouchers, coupons, or discounts for sustainable products or services, or by recognizing their achievements and efforts in your internal or external communications.

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David Jackson

Marketing Director at Winnow 🍏 Artificial intelligence tools to help chefs run more profitable and sustainable kitchens
Report contribution
Offering smaller portions, reducing plate sizes, taking feedback from employees, using data insights to engineer waste out of menus by replacing or refining dishes, training kitchen team members, and highlighting moments like Earth Day or Stop Food Waste Day are all good practices that can help cut waste for employees.

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4 Monitor and evaluate your progress

The final step is to monitor and evaluate your progress and impact on food waste reduction in your workplace. You can use the same methods and tools that you used in the first step to measure and record the amount of food that is wasted before and after implementing your actions. You can also collect feedback from your employees to find out their satisfaction, challenges, and suggestions for improvement. This will help you track and report your results, celebrate your successes, and identify areas for further action or innovation.

Reducing food waste in your workplace is not only good for the environment and society, but also for your business and employees. It can help you save money, enhance your reputation, improve your efficiency, and foster a culture of sustainability and responsibility among your staff. By following these tips, you can make a positive difference and inspire others to join you in the fight against food waste.

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5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How can you encourage employees to reduce food waste in the workplace?

1

2

3

4

5

1 Assess your current situation

2 Educate and engage your employees

3 Implement and incentivize good practices

4 Monitor and evaluate your progress

5 Here’s what else to consider

Corporate Social Responsibility

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How can you encourage employees to reduce food waste in the workplace?

1

2

3

4

5

1 Assess your current situation

2 Educate and engage your employees

3 Implement and incentivize good practices

4 Monitor and evaluate your progress

5 Here’s what else to consider

Corporate Social Responsibility

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