Signatory Spotlight

Piloting an organics recycling program in midwest stores that would divert food that could not be sold or donated to animal feed or compost, which helped them divert 37 tons of food from landfill.

Diverting 76% of operational waste across the company.

Recycling 1,645 tons of food between the ALDI Test Kitchen and select stores.

Donating 32M+ pounds of food from stores and warehouses to their donation partners.

Recycling, reusing, or donating over 385,000 tons of material – equivalent to more than 28,000 truckloads of ALDI product – that would have otherwise gone to landfill.

Educating employees across the organization about food waste prevention through learning modules that support analysis of production and service results to better inform future planning and forecasting.

Using technology-based waste tracking solutions like Leanpath and Aramark’s proprietary app ENABLE to quantify pre-consumer waste in over 450 locations with plans to expand.

Partnering with Food Donation Connection, the Food Recovery Network, Goodr, and other approved local recovery agencies.

Instituting a variety of other initiatives – trayless dining, post-consumer “Weigh the Waste” events, improved signage, plate waste studies, and operational sustainability trainings, to name a few – in locations across the country.

Establishing an inter-department “Scrap Team” tasked with tackling food and other waste.

Encouraging employees to take home surplus or near-end-of-life products.

Collecting 170 staff ideas for reducing waste through an employee engagement competition. Read about it in this case study!

Shifting many products to resealable packaging to preserve freshness for consumers.

Partnering with Feeding America and Raley’s 501(c)3 Food For Families to ensure pallets of over-purchased or mislabeled products are donated to local food banks.

Fundraising for Food For Families. Donations are used by food banks to purchase nutritious and local produce from farmers as well as fresh, frozen, and shelf-stable items at cost.

Streamlining processes and strengthening relationships with hyperlocal food agencies. More than 6 million pounds of food was donated to Raley’s neighbors in 2022.

Collaborating with Atlas Disposal and UC Davis to transfer all food waste to the UC Davis biodigester, which received more than 9,000 tons of food waste from Raley’s in 2022.

Utilizing enhanced demand planning and dynamic pricing technologies, while minimizing on-hand excess inventory.

Encouraging suppliers to measure and report food waste through their created Project Gigaton, which more than 475 suppliers reported food waste reductions and/or date labeling initiatives in 2022.

Encouraging suppliers to standardize date labeling as an aid to improve customer decision-making, an initiative that was part of the Consumer Goods Forum’s Date Labeling Call to Action.

Instituting standardized date labeling on their own private brand items. Walmart estimates that in FY2023, 96% of Walmart U.S. private-brand food supplier-reported sales came from items carrying “Best if Used By” or “Use By” standardized date labels.

Donating unsold food to people and places that need it while it remains nutritious. In FY2023, Walmart donated more than 665 million pounds of food in the U.S. alone through their partnership with Feeding America, a nationwide network of 200 food banks in the U.S.