The Power of Quick Wins: Employee Idea Cuts Food Manufacturing Waste by 70%
Challenge
Quick Facts
- In 2022, 33% of all food produced in the U.S. — 78 million tons — went to waste, according to ReFED.
- Nearly 15% of this food waste — 13.1 million tons, representing an economic value of $40.3 billion — was lost in manufacturing.
TripleWin Advisory was hired to develop a food waste pilot project at Bob’s Red Mill’s manufacturing facility and retail store in Milwaukie, Oregon. Through partnership with the World Wildlife Fund and the Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment, the pilot sought to engage employees in identifying no-to-low-cost measures to prevent food waste in the company’s operations.
Bob’s Red Mill already had a long-standing track record of managing food waste through zero waste initiatives. In 2021, the company donated 8% of its food waste to local charities and recycled the remaining 92% by selling it to farms as animal feed.
However, Bob’s Red Mill wanted to understand how it could prevent these food losses from happening in the first place. Saving food in the milling, processing, and packaging stages of its operations would yield a triple-win: financial, environmental, and social benefits to the company and its stakeholders.
Solutions Delivered
In addition to developing an education course and stakeholder engagement program to build employee awareness and buy-in around waste reduction, TripleWin designed a series of programs for measuring food waste and identifying and testing opportunities for prevention:
- A Food Waste Opportunity Register for recording new ideas from employees. Opportunities were ranked based on degree of savings, speed of impact, and cost.
- Three facility walk-throughs (AKA “gemba walks”) to view firsthand where food waste was occurring
- A five-week Food Waste Reduction Challenge to create excitement and solicit high-potential ideas from employees
- Testing one “quick-win” solution (requiring minimal effort, no-to-low cost) from the ideas gathered.
Project Learnings
Quick-win opportunities can have a sizable impact on reducing food waste in a short period of time. Successful quick wins can also pave the way to progressively bigger reduction initiatives that require a higher investment of capital and time.
Client Outcomes
Comparing food waste measurements before and after the project revealed the power of quick-win implementation:
A single idea showed an average 71% and 78% reduction in food waste (per pound and per case) for each product produced on the tested line. This was despite production output nearly doubling on the tested line during the pilot period.
Moreover, the cost of implementing this solution was negligible. Simple process and behavioral changes on the part of line operators were all it required.
Bob’s Red Mill, the Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment, and the World Wildlife Fund celebrated the project’s success with a detailed case study report and a Q&A with Bob’s Red Mills sustainability manager. The case study concludes with a simple five-point strategy for other food and beverage manufacturers to replicate the project in their own operations.
Contact Us
Work with TripleWin to audit your operational waste and jumpstart savings.
Experts
TripleWin Advisory is a boutique corporate consultancy focused on circularity solutions for industry. TripleWin offers a suite of tools to support clients in charting a practical, circular and sustainable course for their business. These tools include:
- Carbon inventories and setting science-based and Net Zero carbon goals
- Materiality assessments and sustainability roadmaps
- Building circular business models supported by financial analysis
- Risk scenario models using the TCFD framework
- Workshops and courses to build employee agency and corporate competency
We work with leaders in the following industries: apparel, footwear & textiles; information technology; metals; beauty; food & beverage; healthcare; building construction; human resource management; and retail.
TripleWin Advisory is a woman-founded and woman-led public benefit company headquartered in the state of Oregon.
Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods is a 100% employee-owned company specializing in baking flours, oatmeal, and other whole grain, organic, non-GMO and gluten free foods. Their mission of “Inspiring Joy with Wholesome™” is backed by a diverse line of flours, oats, cereals, seeds, baking mixes, grains, snacks and more. Founded in 1978 in Milwaukie, Oregon.
Headquarters:Milwaukie, Oregon
Industry:
Food manufacturing
Main Product:
Flours and meals