Save Food, Save the Planet
– the Context Food Waste Challenge
Author: Miriam Finglass & Alice Gallanagh | Translation Project Managers
Following on from taking part in the Climate Heroes Challenge earlier in the year, the Sustainability team at Context is now organising our next Climate Challenges!
First, we will hold a Food Waste Challenge starting Tuesday 29th October and running until Tuesday 5th November aiming to reduce our food waste.
Context and some of our freelance linguists will compete in two teams to reduce our food waste as much as possible over the week! The week-long challenge will help us develop better habits and awareness of our consumption and food waste patterns.
Globally, around 931 million tonnes of food go to waste each year. 61% of this comes from households, 26% from food service and 13% from retail (1). The EPA estimates that Ireland generated 750,000 tonnes of food waste in 2022 (2). This equates to 146kg of food waste per person. Food waste is a significant contributor to climate change, with food loss and waste contributing to 8-10% of greenhouse gas emissions (3).
We’re really looking forward to learning about the steps we can take to reduce food waste. We know that there’s much more we can do to make a significant impact.
There will be a well-earned prize at the end of the challenge for the winner of each team. In the Climate Heroes Challenge we held earlier this year, we sent one of the winners for a weekend away to an eco-retreat which you can read about here.
After the Food Waste Challenge, we will hold a Plastics Challenge from 11th to 18th November. More details on that to follow!
How do you feel about food waste? Do you ever ask a restaurant or business about their food waste policy? Doing so can help businesses to see that their customers do care about the issue and can bring about some positive changes. Why not organise or take part in a food waste challenge?
Additional Resources:
1 UN Food Waste Index Report 2024
2, 3 Environmental Protection Agency – Food Waste Statistics