On November 2nd, New Zealand's largest food businesses joined the Kai Commitment - a voluntary initiative to reduce food waste and emissions. The Kai Commitment is led by the New Zealand Food Waste Champions, a charitable organisation established to progress UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, reducing food waste by 50 percent by 2030. Fonterra, Countdown, Goodman Fielder, Silver Fern Farms, Foodstuffs and Nestle are the first organisations to join the commitment.
"In New Zealand, landfilled food waste contributes four percent of our total emissions and represents a lost economic opportunity of up to $2 billion per year. What’s more tragic than the numbers is that one in five Kiwi kids live in constant hunger. Through the Kai Commitment, we hope to collectively work on developing a food system in Aotearoa New Zealand, that values every piece of food we produce," said Kaitlin Dawson, Executive Director of New Zealand Food Waste Champions.
“We’ve seen globally that voluntary agreements make a meaningful impact on reducing food waste. The UK’s equivalent agreement, the Courtauld Commitment, contributed to the UK reducing food waste by 28 percent nationally in the last decade and being on track to meet the UNSDG12.3 goal.
“Reducing food waste also makes good business sense. Global studies show that for every $1 investment in reducing food waste, there can be a return of $14.”
“I’d like to thank our first four signatories, the founding signatories, Countdown, Goodman Fielder, Fonterra and Silver Fern Farms who have supported the design and development of this initiative over the last year. Building Kai Commitment with businesses, for business, was very important to us. We thank them for their insight, leadership and commitment to reducing food waste in their organisations and supply chains.
“Additionally, I want to acknowledge the organisations that invested in the establishment of this project including, AGMARDT, Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation, Countdown, Goodman Fielder, and the Ministry for the Environment. It has been a team effort.”
