The Guardian stated that approximately 45% of all fruits and vegetables, 35% of fish and seafood, 30% of cereals, and 20% of meat and dairy products are wasted by suppliers, retailers, and consumers every year. With the world’s population growing from 7.6Bn to 9.8Bn by 2020 (The United Nations), the problem is getting worse.

What’s more — growing, cleaning and transporting this food is releasing trillions of tons of unneeded carbon into the atmosphere every year. It is also a waste of human and natural resources, increasing food scarcity, famine and weakening the supply chain.

Large grocers and hospitality chains can have a significant impact on the food supply chain due to their links with farmers, processors, and consumers. They have the power to be responsible and make a change.

The Harvard Business Review proposes four ways that retailers reduce food waste as it occurs in food farming and food production, in the stores themselves, and during consumption.

#1. Upgrade inventory systems with the latest technology. Advancements in automation and software capabilities have made inventory management scalable across more SKUs and product types.

#2. Partner with farmers in the supply chain. Food waste starts at farms in the value chain. Food retailers can be more systematic in sharing forecast data for specific food items to help farmers with their production plans and prevent overplanting. Retailers can also share productivity-enhancing knowledge and techniques to help farmers increase their production efficiency and boost farm product quality.

#3. Modify or eliminate traditional store practices that increase waste. Some conventional food retail practices can unintentionally increase food waste. Over the years, supermarkets have embraced high cosmetic standards for fruit and vegetables, leading them to reject even marginally imperfect-looking food (e.g., too short, long, big, small or uneven in shape, too red or not red enough, and so on). To curb this food waste, grocery chains such as Morrisons sell beautiful, yet “wonky” vegetables at a discounted price.

#4. Team up with consumers. Food retailers can also organize “waste less” campaigns. For example, in the U.S., Kroger’s recent initiative “Zero Hunger, Zero Waste” uses crowdsourcing to interact with consumers and gather ideas for food waste and hunger prevention.

How Orderly Can Help

Scorecard

Our technology empowers a sustainable responsibility within the supply chain, and with the introduction of the Orderly Scorecard which enables store manages to focus on driving sustainability by decreasing waste (and increasing profit), we feel our technology can make a real difference to the world and to the businesses we work with. The Orderly Scorecard focuses on three areas; using AI to display three sustainability areas that the store is doing well at, two they can improve upon and finally one overall “Orderly Score”.

We believe this tool will not only make vast savings within each store but also have the influence to create a more sustainable way of working -drastically cutting food and beverage waste.

When store managers are following the recommendations to make incremental improvements each week, profitability and sustainability will increase week-on-week. Multiply this gradual improvement across an entire store estate, and you can see just how effective the Orderly Scorecard and Orderly Score can be.

Additionally, the Orderly Forecast Management application captures demand from franchise store groups to ensure a reduction in supply chain waste.

Streamlining forecast capture for food and beverage campaigns — the application feeds all users tasks and highlights the next steps needed to bring a site from idea to sign-off. No more manual processes are rekeying data, much more speed and simplicity.

With Orderly Forecast Management, planning and replenishment teams are now invoicing with more accuracy and timeliness, with no need to write off stock (reducing waste and increasing responsibility), due to the tool enabling them to move the responsibility to licensees.