The problem and our purpose

Only in recent years full awareness of the catastrophic proportion of food waste has emerged and prompted initiatives to tackle it. Interest and activity on the part of policy makers, industry, consumers and researchers have grown steadily in the last 15 years. At a global level, this is shown by the appearance of the reduction of food loss and waste as the target of SDG 12.3 and the creation of Food Waste Index (and a Food Loss Index) by UNEP. In Europe the EU has adopted the Farm to Fork strategy that include among its four key targets, Food Loss and Waste prevention.

In Norway too things have been moving since 2007, and the food industry has taken a proactive and leading role that found expression first in the creation of Matvett to promote action and then in the signing of the Industry Agreement setting food waste reduction targets and signed by 104 companies.

The pilot project that we are presenting builds on this agreement and aims at developing an innovative tool to promote effective progress towards food reduction in Norway and meeting SDG 12.3. We want to help Norway to become a leader in food waste reduction and the Norwegian food sector to become an example of social responsibility and leadership towards a sustainable world.
 

The idea of a Waste Reduction Pathways and Index (PAX)

Currently, lack of data and knowledge sharing and lack of mutual trust among the sector stakeholders prevent more substantial improvements in food waste reduction. The sustainability goal (SDG 12.3) cannot be achieved simply by encouraging better internal performance of each company but needs some systemic changes that can only be achieved through more collaboration and trust within the sector. Therefore, we are proposing a new tool: the Food Waste Reduction Pathways and Index (PAX). This tool integrates data collection, reflection on internal performance and systemic barriers, and tailored targets setting and monitoring.  This integrated approach will help companies to identify priorities, empower and compel them to collaborate towards promoting the needed systemic changes, and provide incentives.

How could it work? Possible structure and mechanisms

The proposed tool (PAX for short) uses the existing reporting system (to which it proposes some upgrades) and integrates it with the Progress Pathways (PPs) and the Performance and Contribution Index (PCI). By closely linking the knowledge generation and the planned action, PAX is a flexible and adaptive tool, that keeps growing and responds to emerging challenges and opportunities.