Prioritising Food Waste in the Industry

By Marc Zornes CEO & Co-founder, Winnow

Food waste is great challenge for the aviation industry, but tech companies are offering promising solutions

Waste management is an ageold problem for the aviation industry. Whilst inroads have been made to reduce plastic waste and improve recycling rates, food waste remains a challenge. With the industry facing turbulent times due to the global pandemic, there has never been a more important time to ensure operations are as lean and green as possible.

The aviation industry has been hit hard by COVID-19. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) latest estimate shows flight volumes are still down by over 50% (as of September 2020) and global losses are estimated at USD 84.3bn. It’s clearly an incredibly challenging period for the sector requiring operators to quickly adapt to new hygiene and safety requirements.

Understandably airlines are concentrating on keeping the lights on and staying in business, however the pandemic also presents a changing consumer base with new values and behaviours. The links between human and planetary health have been laid bare by the COVID-19 crisis. Consumer demand for sustainable brands was already a mega trend before lockdowns. For example, a Deloitte research in 2019 found that more than two-thirds say they’re hearing demands from customers to increase their commitment to good environmental practices.

As people have stayed at home, they have seen how human activity is strongly related to climate change. The lockdown has resulted in rare sightings of blue skies from Beijing to Delhi, and worldwide CO2 emissions are predicted to fall by 8% in 2020. The crisis has also painted a stark picture of the potential global impact of climate change if we fail to act. Increasingly consumers will be less tolerant of businesses with poor environmental records.

According to The International Council of Clean Transportation, CO2 emissions from all commercial airline operations in 2018 totalled 918 million metric tonnes - 2.4% of global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use. In step with the likes of IKEA, Amazon, Microsoft and many other global brands, airlines are starting to set science-based targets to reach net zero emissions. In mid-September, Oneworld became the first airline alliance to commit to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Whilst a transition from fossil fuels to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is undoubtedly key if we are to have a chance of meeting these targets, operators should also be looking for other lower hanging fruit to drive down environmental impact. Research in 2017 conducted by WRAP and IATA found that 1.14 million tonnes of food was wasted from in-flight catering per year. To put that into perspective, that equates to almost 5M tonnes of CO2e, which is

Close to 500 kg of food items, including fruits, vegetables, bakery items and meat, were saved each day

the equivalent of a Boeing 737 flying from Dubai to London 27,000 times. The business case for tackling this issue is also clear. Pre-pandemic the global aviation catering market was estimated to be USD18bn. Even at 50% passenger volume, the savings potential for airlines taking a strategic approach to reduce food waste is sizable.

To solve the problem, operators are increasingly turning to technology to provide insight and analytics to help drive down waste. One example of this is Emirates Flight Catering (EKFC) who operate a state-of-the-art complex dedicated to servicing the flights of Emirates. With a built-up area of over 56,000 m2, it’s the largest facility of its kind in the world. At peak production levels the facility can prepare 225,000 meals per day.

The EKFC culinary team is working with Winnow, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) company who help caterers track and reduce food waste with computer vision and machine learning. Having already established a baseline, the EKFC team are working towards a 35% reduction target in its central operations.

The project follows previous efforts to reduce food wastage across the airline. In thefinancial year 2019-20 close to 500 kg of food items, including fruits, vegetables, bakery items and meat, were saved each day to be used in small goods, or were reused for different purposes in the company’s retail operations.

Globally, food waste accounts for around 8% of greenhouse gas emissions and if we are serious about mitigating against the potentially catastrophic effects of climate change we simply must act. As part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, goal 12.3 sets out an ambition to halve food waste by 2030.

To achieve this, governments, citizens, innovators and businesses must all work together to set targets and take action. The business case is compelling, and post pandemic it’s unlikely that consumers will accept a return to the ‘old normal’ where sustainability performance is concerned. The aviation industry has survived through difficult times in the past, and will do so again. The future of travel has to be sustainable, and tackling food waste is a quick win for people, planet, and profit during these testing times.