Stop Food Waste Day: AI stops retailers dumping 11m kg

Releasing figures just in time for Stop Food Waste Day on 26th April 2023, a revolutionary system from a global retail planning specialist has prevented enough food to feed Durham for a year from being thrown away. 

RELEX Solutions has published a report into how its AI-drive software has helped retailers save a huge amount of food waste in the past 12 months. According to the numbers, those using the platform have on average seen a 20% increase in savings compared with the previous year. In total, 11m kg of food waste was saved, equating to 35,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, or enough to feed the entire city of Durham.

Food waste alone is responsible for around 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Each year, around 1/3 of the world’s entire food supply chain goes to waste, emphasising the importance of such technologies. with the average UK family throws away £800 of food items every 12 months. Overall, Britain’s 12-month ‘food footprint‘ could cover its own landmass, plus that of Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

‘Alongside efforts to reduce food waste, we’ve been developing capabilities in our software to track our customers’ CO2 emissions to help them achieve their sustainability goals. Customers can see the CO2 impact of the goods flowing through the supply chain and measure the effect the reduced spoilage has on their carbon footprint,’ said Svante Göthe, Head of Sustainability at RELEX Solutions.

The company itself retroactively reached carbon neutrality for 2021 in 2022. This was achieved through a combination of minimising, offsetting, or removing emissions – including switching office and private cloud storage power to renewable energy sources. You can find out more about the steps this involved by reading RELEX’s latest Annual Sustainability Report.

‘At RELEX, we approach sustainability broadly from environmental, social, and governance perspectives,” continued Göthe. ”We not only focus on our corporate-level responsibility but believe that when individuals come together and focus on their everyday decisions, they drive positive impact. It is incredibly motivating to work in an industry where we can drive benefits for our customers, employees, and the planet.’

Image: Elevate

More on food waste: 

UK household food waste covers combined area of five countries