Food waste, sustainability, and the corporate sector: case study of a US food company

Abstract

Food waste has emerged as one of the world's most critical issues, as record levels of food waste have resulted in negative outcomes for food security, land use, and methane production associated with climate change. As key institutions in the world's food system, retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers have taken steps to reduce food waste. Yet, while food corporations promote their food waste programs as part of their broader green sustainability initiatives, it is unclear how and why they have developed these initiatives. To fill this research gap, this study examines a US company's food waste reduction programs as a case study. To this end, this study utilises interview data of key stakeholders to examine the ways that food waste is produced, regulated, and reused by food corporations. Research findings point to some positive outcomes, such as the transformation of food waste into alternative energy and increased efficiency in food donation systems. Yet, these positive outcomes may be overshadowed by corporate priorities which privilege profitability, brand enhancement, and short-term high-visibility solutions. This research highlights that the broad and somewhat diffuse definition of sustainability may allow corporations to highlight narrow, companyspecific technical fixes rather than do the hard work associated with reducing food waste in their supply chains. Moreover, data suggest that many food corporations use the sustainability trope as a way to ensure that they are recognised as legitimate, ethical, and profitable companies. Thus, while some argue that sustainable development institutionalises important environmental practices into the market, evidence from this study suggests that these corporate practices may be evidence of neoliberal environmental governance which is determined by market logics rather than environmental or social justice. In this way, corporate profitability determines how sustainability is defined, when and where sustainability is implemented, and how sustainability is to be measured.

Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in China: Trends, Context, and Impact on Company Performance

“…Both findings are in agreement with the most recent published study in this field [40,41,51]. In the empirical analyses, we find that from the investors' perspective, a company will gain a higher revenue when it engages in CSR with more practices, as shown in recent studies [37][38][39]41,42,44]. We also find evidence that the CSR initiatives could improve the financial health of a company and consequently facilitate the manager's operation.…”

The devolution of urban food waste governance: Case study of food rescue in Los Angeles

“…As discussed in more detail elsewhere (Aras & Crowther, 2009;Warshawsky, 2015), the recent push by corporations to reduce food waste often fits into a broader marketing strategy whereby companies aim to increase system efficiencies, reduce waste and redundancies, project their green sustainability credentials and enhance long-term profitability (Food Waste Reduction Alliance, 2013; U.S. Zero Waste Business Council, 2014).…”

“…While FF may want to promote its lofty vision of food recovery, many partner organizations want to know how they can save money or leverage their brand through good public relations or marketing (Aras & Crowther, 2009;Warshawsky, 2015). Given that private food companies expend great resources to produce food, they are often hesitant to partner with food rescue organizations like FF.…”

Methodological Challenges in Urban Food Systems Research: Case Study of Local Food Institutions in South Africa

“…This includes speaking with people who create policy (central state and corporate administrators), implement policy (provincial and local state administrators and local retail staff), and are impacted by policy (community stakeholders). Given the preponderance of paid consultants and in-house researchers reproducing the positive image that many powerful state and corporate food institutions hope to project [44], it is important that independent researchers critically examine how food systems are conceptualized and how different institutions fit within these systems. Ideally, longitudinal studies would be developed which could measure the ways that different institutions participant, manage, and reproduce different structures within the food system.…”