Search

The city of Minneapolis, Minnesota has just entered into a first-of-its kind Clean Energy Partnership with its two utilities, Xcel Energy and the natural gas company CenterPoint. The new agreement renews the city's franchise agreements with both utilities to include more consumer choices for clean energy, more support for renewable energy development in Minnesota, an increased focus on energy efficiency, and a more vigorous program to transition municipal facilities into more clean energy and improved efficiency.

Assuming that both of the utilities deliver on their promises, Minneapolis energy consumers can probably thank the good people of Boulder for helping to bring the Clean Energy Partnership into being. Boulder also has Xcel as its utility, but Boulder voters have taken an entirely different route toward bumping their energy supply into 21st-century renewable sources. It seems that Xcel is determined not to let the same thing happen in Minneapolis.

Boulder vs. Xcel Energy

Along with New York City, Philadelphia, and many other cities, Boulder has been looking to adopt a green brand that can attract new businesses and residents.

Many aspects of this kind of effort fall within local or state control, but for better or worse, energy supply can be a sticking point. In a best case scenario, if the local utility is on board with renewable energy, then a good working relationship can enhance a city's green brand while improving the long term outlook for price stability, and potentially limiting or reversing future rate increases.

Xcel has actually been doing a good job of transitioning itself into a renewable energy model. However, apparently the pace of change has not been fast enough for Boulder voters, who see a pile of green goodies in Colorado's vast wind power potential.

In 2011, Boulder voters approved a ballot measure empowering the city to explore severing its ties with Xcel. By April 2013, the Boulder City Council set the wheels in motion for the final steps toward accomplishing that.

The last time we checked, this past summer Boulder was fighting legal action by Xcel while moving forward with plans to acquire the utility's distribution network through condemnation.

Meanwhile, back in Minneapolis...

Now compare the contentious relationship between Boulder and Xcel with the optimistic outlook expressed by Minneapolis Council President Barbara Johnson (here's that link to the Xcel press release again):

There's no other partnership like this in the country. Although we've worked collaboratively with the utilities before, we'll now be teaming up with them to meet the city's clean energy goals. We stand to accomplish more together than on our own.

From the outside looking in, it's difficult to understand why Boulder and Minneapolis took two such divergent paths in dealing with the same company.

However, Minneapolis has published some handy FAQ sheets on energy franchise agreements and the Clean Energy Partnership that offer at least two clues.

First, the FAQs make the point that "municipalizing" an existing private utility is a costly endeavor. Boulder voters and their representatives have apparently decided that the effort is worth the financial risk, and only time will tell if their assessment was well thought out.

Of more interest in terms of the transition to clean energy is the second clue offered up by the FAQs. They describe a strong state-level legislative framework that promotes clean energy and energy efficiency, including several recent bills supported by the city of Minneapolis.

Specifically, last year the state legislature passed a new Omnibus Energy bill, part of which requires electric utilities to sell a certain percentage of their in-state retail sales in the form of solar energy.

That provision alone could have been enough to motivate Xcel to work more proactively with Minneapolis, especially after its experience in Boulder.

Also helping things along could have been provisions in the Omnibus Bill aimed at bumping up energy conservation goals, and for streamlining the PACE program, which enables municipalities to create bond-backed loan pools for property owners to invest in energy efficiency upgrades and renewable energy systems.

If it the Minneapolis experiment does pan out, it could mean that Boulder was a learning experience for Xcel, and it could provide a blueprint for other utilities that are making the painful transition toward embracing a wider range of energy-related services.

Image credit (cropped) m01229 via flickr.com, creative commons license.

The Flourish & Prosper conference held last week at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland sought to distinguish itself by moving from ideas to action. With an array of over 40 sustainability notables in attendance, including Naveen Jain, Bart Houlahan, Andrew Winston, Raj Sisodia, Peter Senge, Michael Braungart and many more, there would not only presentations and talks, but also a number of design summits intended to wrestle with a some of the most critical and relevant challenges facing the sustainability movement today.

Day two kicked off with a rousing talk by Raj Sisodia, co-author, along with John Mackey of Whole Foods, of the book Conscious Capitalism First, he went through a brief history of the world, before and after 1989, which, he claims was a massive turning point (fall of Berlin wall, Tiananmen Square, Exxon Valdez spill, Ayatollah Khomeini, the invention of the World Wide Web, and the first time the median age in the U.S. exceeded 40). Then he talked about business as a force and said that “making money is like making red blood cells, we need both to live, but that's not why we live.” We have the opportunity today, he said, “to lead the most meaningful life humans have ever lived.”

Next, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, former Chairman of Accenture and Royal Dutch Shell spoke about the great challenge that occurs when government doesn't function. Business cannot address this alone. We need partnerships between business and civil society. He spoke of the importance of the UN Global Compact, in which Case Western’s Weatherhead School of Business played an early role. This is the largest corporate citizenship initiative, with 8,000 companies signed up to report against 10 criteria. If they don't report they get kicked out.

Harvard’s Jane Nelson, talked about how, “This is the generation that for the first time has the means to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity.”
Opportunity was a key theme throughout the conference, which consisted primarily of business leaders, business school personnel and consultants.

The design summits consisted of eight topics. These were:

1. Cities as Centers of Full-Spectrum Flourishing


2. Regenerative Agriculture: Feeding without Depleting


3. 100% Clean Energy


4. Consciousness of Connectedness in the Workplace


5. S. Grand Strategy


6. New Metrics for Sustainability as Flourishing


7. Spiraling the Circular Economy


8. Showcasing Business as an Agent of World Benefit

Gil Friend, former CEO of Natural Logic, is now the sustainability manager for the city of Palo Alto. He told the cities group that they were considering bold moves to reach a state of native carbon neutrality by 2017. These might include a climate neutral local utility, a car-free city, a circular economy. Jenita McGowan, Cleveland’s Sustainability Chief, described their efforts as “clarifying, comprehensive, participatory, generative, innovative and welcoming.”

The group spontaneously generated some 150 ideas in the areas of jobs, civic engagement, nature, social, public safety, buildings, sharing, education, wellness, infrastructure, governance, and finance.

Michael Braungart of Cradle to Cradle fame, opened the final day, challenging the audience to be more ambitious in its aspirations for the future. So much that is being done in the name of sustainability, is not taking us far enough. “There are far too many people on this planet,” he said, “for each of us to just be less bad.” He spoke about a triple top line, doing more good, rather than a triple bottom line.

The conference closed with the eight design groups presenting the variety of solutions they generated. Many of the groups have committed to continuing the development of the solutions to the point where they can be made public. A number of thought leader interviews have resulted from this engagement, which you will hear more about in the days and weeks that follow.

 

Image credit RP Siegel

RP Siegel, PE, is an author, inventor and consultant. He has written for numerous publications ranging from Huffington Post to Mechanical Engineering. He and Roger Saillant co-wrote the successful eco-thriller Vapor Trails. RP, who is a regular contributor to Triple Pundit and Justmeans, sees it as his mission to help articulate and clarify the problems and challenges confronting our planet at this time, as well as the steadily emerging list of proposed solutions. His uniquely combined engineering and humanities background help to bring both global perspective and analytical detail to bear on the questions at hand.

Follow RP Siegel on Twitter.

The “sharing economy” describes a type of business built on the sharing of resources – allowing customers to access goods when needed. Think AirBnb or Zipcar. While sharing goods has always been a common practice among friends, family and neighbors, in recent years, the concept of sharing has moved from a community practice into a profitable business model.  But is "sharing" really the right word to describe these new companies?

Now that many sharing economy companies are maturing, is sustainability still at the core of their philosophy? Is “sharing economy” still the right term to describe these companies, and have their benefits been truly triple bottom line?

TriplePundit hosted a conversation on the sharing economy with folks from AirBnB, Lyft and Yerdle on October 22nd at the Impact Hub in San Francisco! We had a great evening of discussion and answered many questions from the audience.

WATCH A RECAP OF OUR CONVERSATION RIGHT HERE:

Schedule

• 6:30 – 7:00 – beers and networking


• 7:00 – 8:00 – fireside chat and Q&A


• 8:00 – 8:30 – networking

TriplePundit's Founder, Nick Aster, led the discussion with Molly Turner, Rachel Barge and Emily Castor.

Molly Turner

Molly Turner is the Head of Civic Partnerhips at Airbnb, where she built and manages the company’s public-private partnerships program, Shared City. She partners with the Airbnb local community and their civic leaders on a variety of projects focused on sustainability, economic development, resiliency and hospitality. She also manages Airbnb’s policy research examining the business model’s various impacts on urban economics, environment and community.

 

 

Rachel Barge

Rachel Barge leads Growth for yerdle, the sharing economy startup founded by executives from Sierra Club and Walmart. Yerdle’s mission is to make it as easy to get something re-used as it is to buy it new. They’ve built an app-based marketplace where every item costs zero dollars: members give and receive thousands of goods every day, from camping tents to cameras to clothing. Previously, she was a Partner at Greenstart, a seed-stage venture firm and design studio, where she invested in 22 startups in the cleanweb and sharing economy space. Rachel is a Forbes 30 Under 30 in Energy, a Morris K Udall Scholar, and Brower Youth Award winner. She holds a B.S. in Conservation and Resource Studies and Forestry from UC Berkeley.

 

Emily Castor

As a member of the Lyft team since launch, Emily built Lyft’s community of drivers and passengers from the ground up. In her role as Director of Community Relations, she mobilizes Lyft’s grassroots supporters and manages outreach and accessibility initiatives nationally. She also serves as the Chair of the Sharing Economy Advisory Network for the National League of Cities.  Before working in tech, Emily was a transportation policy aide on Capitol Hill, a campaign staffer, and a municipal financial advisor. She believes in the power of the sharing economy to make cities more sustainable and bring communities closer together.

British high street stalwart Marks & Spencer (M&S) has scaled up its use of mobile technology in the supply chain to poll 64,230 workers across 46 manufacturing locations in 5 countries (China, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the UK) – exceeding its target, set a year ago, of 22,500 workers in 30 factories by more than double.

“Listening to workers in this way helps us connect the dots between quality of life issues like workplace health and safety and business issues in manufacturing, such as worker retention and productivity,” commented Fiona Sadler, M&S's head of ethical trading.

It is the first time M&S workers in these specific countries have had an anonymous channel to report on sensitive issues like working hours, and communication with their supervisors. With more detailed data, M&S says it is able to go beyond auditing to engage in a new kind of conversation with suppliers.

““With 44% of workers choosing to participate, M&S surveys are at the upper end of our average Labor Link response rate of 30-40%, and we see a higher degree of trust and scalability in anonymous mobile surveys, compared to more traditional methods of connecting with workers through interviews,” said Heather Franzese, executive director of the organization behind the Labor Link platform.

Labor Link is able to reach workers with different technology preferences, and manufacturing almost any product type. In Bangladesh, workers use basic feature phones and can access pre-recorded questions to address low literacy rates. In China, Labor Link is available through a WeChat application for workers with smartphones, giving workers the option to use the technology they prefer.

M&S intends to use the data gathered to develop training programs on Workplace Communications and align the company’s business practices with worker needs.

 

• In other news, M&S is installing the UK’s largest single roof mounted solar panel array on its East Midlands distribution centre in Castle Donington.The project, which is expected to be completed in early 2015, is being worked on in partnership with Amber Infrastructure. The solar PV system will span the site’s 900,000 sq ft roof and will generate over 5,000 MWh of electricity per year, enough to power 1,190 houses. The 24,272 PV panel structure will lower M&S’s carbon footprint by 48,000 tonnes over 20 years. The energy generated will be enough to make the fully automated distribution centre, which is big enough to hold 11 football pitches, close to self-sufficient during daylight hours.

Textile Exchange, a global nonprofit dedicated to sustainability in the apparel and textile industry, announced today that leading fashion, footwear and outdoor brands, including H&M and Eddie Bauer, will join The North Face in adopting the Responsible Down Standard (RDS) – a third-party certified animal welfare and traceability standard that upholds the ethical treatment of animals along the down and feather supply chain. The North Face initially worked with Textile Exchange and Control Union Certification, an accredited third-party certification body, to design version 1.0 of the standard, which was launched earlier this year.

Upon completion of the RDS in January 2014, The North Face gifted the standard to Textile Exchange to administer and evolve it as needed, as well as work with more brands and down suppliers to implement the standard. As part of this effort, Textile Exchange is evolving the standard through a stakeholder feedback process that includes input from brands and NGOs such as Adidas, Outdoor European Group, Outdoor Industry Association, and Four Paws.

“As more brands adopt the RDS, it will bring improved animal welfare conditions and better traceability in the down supply chain at a much larger scale than any one organization or one supply chain could accomplish alone,” said Anne Gillespie, Director of Industry Integrity of Textile Exchange.

Down and feathers that are used in apparel, bedding and home goods are traditionally sourced from geese and duck that are grown for the food industry -- and in recent years animal welfare groups have raised concerns about live-plucking and force-feeding practices found among certain suppliers. In response, Textile Exchange and its partners worked with a diverse set of stakeholders and did extensive research, including visiting the sourcing regions in remote areas of Europe and Asia, to fully understand conditions and address issues along the global down supply chain in its creation of the standard.

The RDS provides the most comprehensive, global, third-party certified animal welfare and traceability standard for down and feathers – and is available for use by any company. Additionally, the RDS goes beyond preventing practices such as force-feeding and live-plucking to also provide requirements for food and water quality, animal health and hygiene, and pest and predator control for down suppliers.

“We couldn’t be more excited to see the adoption of the RDS across the outdoor industry as well as fashion, apparel and athletic brands such as Eddie Bauer and H&M. These brands are helping lead the charge to transform the down supply chain in an entirely new way,” said Adam Mott, Director of Sustainability at The North Face. “When we set out to develop the RDS, we knew that in order to truly succeed we had to create something that was global, open and adaptable. Today we are seeing the realization of this vision – and yet it is only the beginning.”

The North Face has committed to 100 percent certified and responsibly sourced down across all product lines by 2017, and other brands have committed to introducing certified down into their products as soon as Fall 2015.

Day-to-day, a rotating list of companies announce their latest efforts to set new sustainability industry standards, from game-changing initiatives such as Walmart’s Sustainability Index and Puma’s triple bottom line accounting system to a spectrum of brands broadcasting new metrics, programs or platforms that advance their corporate sustainability goals. Setting the pace for industry-leading change has become an industry standard. While this type of leadership is commendable (and necessary), it does not always guarantee systemic change. This is one important distinction between two standards recently launched by two outdoor apparel giants: Patagonia’s Traceable Down Standard and The North Face’s Responsible Down Standard.

Patagonia, which launched its new standard last November and announced that from fall 2014 forward all its down-insulated products will contain only 100 percent “traceable down,” is certainly an exemplar of all-things-good for the outdoor and apparel industry. As Patagonia has done in the past with its commitment to organic cotton and recycled polyester, the company hopes its new down traceability standard will “inspire other companies to look closely at their own down supply chains and utilize the model.”

This is all well and good. Models are important – though when are models not enough, especially when complex global supply chains are involved? Perhaps the question we can ask instead is: how can sustainable business leaders go beyond setting the pace for the race, and instead ensure that everyone running makes it to the finish line?

That’s exactly what The North Face has set out to do with the launch of version 1.0 of the Responsible Down Standard (RDS), which not only assures that the down in their products does not come from animals that have been subject to any unnecessary harm (such as force-feeding and live-plucking), but also serves as a holistic tool designed for any organization seeking to source down from ethically treated geese. Even more, The North Face has “gifted” its standard – which will be updated to reflect additional stakeholder input – to a partner organization to encourage widespread industry use.

Collaborative Design

Because of the extreme complexity – and limited transparency and traceability – of the global down supply chain, The North Face sought input from experts in animal welfare, standards development, and materials traceability and collaborated with two respected organizations to develop a standard that would address the diverse challenges of the global down supply and be a resource for the entire industry. Control Union Certifications, an accredited third-party certification body with expert knowledge of farm systems, and Textile Exchange, a global nonprofit dedicated to sustainability in the apparel and textile industry, worked with The North Face to develop the standard.

Instead of focusing only on The North Face’s supply chain, the company wanted to turn the standard into something that the industry could adapt and companies could use to fit their own complex supply chain realities. That is why upon launching an initial version of the standard earlier this year, The North Face “gifted” ownership of the RDS to Textile Exchange, granting the organization full rights to distribute and update the RDS as it sees fit.

"We are giving the Responsible Down Standard to the public in order to provide a holistic tool for any organization seeking to source down more responsibly. Our hope is that the collective use of the RDS will effectively promote positive animal welfare conditions and traceability in the down supply chain at a much larger scale than we could accomplish alone,” said Adam Mott, Director of Sustainability at The North Face.

Open Source-Like Iteration

Similar to the open source nature of previous tools shared to advance sustainability in the apparel industry – such as the Outdoor Industry Association’s Eco Index and Nike’s Materials Sustainability Index, which were adapted by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition to develop the first version of the Higg Index – the RDS hopes to reach broad consensus and take an entire industry’s ethical sourcing of down to the next level.

Under its ownership of the RDS, Textile Exchange will conduct a rapid-review process where it will gather real-use feedback and field data from a range of users, industry partners and stakeholders, with the goal to release the next version of the RDS in 2015.

“We look forward to building on [this] foundation…to continue to drive sustainable change in the outdoor and textiles industry,” said Anne Gillespie, Director of Industry Integrity at Textile Exchange.

Beyond Apparel

Through its partnership with the Textile Exchange, The North Face hopes the new standard will influence brands beyond the outdoor and apparel industry, such as furniture, bedding and other manufacturers that consume about 99 percent of the world’s down feathers. According to a report released by the European Outdoor Group (EOG), outdoor brands account for less than one percent of global down use.

Time will tell if this “gift” becomes a catalyst for system-wide industry collaboration, innovation, and progress. Here’s hoping it does, and that other sustainable brands are inspired to do the same and move beyond simply setting standards to convening thought leadership and facilitationg action that drives industry level change.

By Todd Burns

A new report from the World Green Building Council (WGBC) and Jones Lang LaSalle, titled Health, wellbeing and productivity in offices: The next chapter for green building unearths the connection between green workplaces and employee productivity, provides “overwhelming evidence” that indoor air quality, thermal comfort, access to natural light and other elements of green office design make employees not only feel better, but also more productive.

Following are a series of projects completed by JLL for businesses across the U.S. These images illustrate how each company’s unique workplace reflects its sustainability and employee productivity goals. Click the first image after the jump to open the gallery.

[gallery columns="4" ids="195749,195750,195751,195752,195753,195754,195755,195756"]

Images courtesy of JLL

Todd Burns is the President of JLL’s Project and Development Services and General Contracting units. He is responsible for business development, relationship management for the firm’s clients seeking project management services, and ensures that the firm’s clients receive outstanding performance from the organization. In addition to running many different major projects for our clients, Todd is recognized for his ability to achieve significant savings for clients while building effective teams.

We spend so much time here at TriplePundit talking about how companies and universities are becoming more sustainable, it is easy to forget the sustainability agenda is going on everywhere, and yes, that includes government. To that end, more prisons are making moves to become more environmentally responsible. The latest is the Northwest State Corrections Facility in Swanton, Vermont. Recently the women’s prison, which incarcerates over 200 prisoners, announced it had become compliant with the state’s 2012 solid waste and recycling law.

Considering the depressing statistic that almost one in 100 American adults is behind bars, there is plenty of work to do on this front. From deliveries to food to water consumption, these facilities, operating 24/7 just as a small town does, provide plenty of opportunities to reduce waste and save money. Washington State, for example, partners with one of its state universities to implement recycling and sustainability programs within its correctional facilities. So what exactly is going on in this corner of New England?

Citing diminishing landfill space, Vermont’s legislature passed Act 148, “Universal Recycling of Solid Waste” law two years ago. The law has set a timeline for recyclable materials to be sorted by homes and businesses, while all organic waste must be sent to composting facilities by summer 2015. Vermont is the first state in the U.S. to ban food scraps, pre-and post-consumer, from entering municipal landfills.

According to a Vermont government press release, the process appeared relatively simple. New containers and sorting systems collected all metals, plastics and glass while other containers were set up for food scraps. That food waste is in turn collected by a local company, Green Mountain Compost, which has its roots in collecting waste from Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. Green Mountain has 10 acres of land where the eventual compost is sold to residents and businesses. Northwest State Corrections Facility reached its waste diversion goal one year early, and the state will replicate the sorting system to the other prisons throughout Vermont.

No word on the involvement of the actual involvement of the prisoners with Vermont’s recycling and composting initiatives. Assumedly their role is to make sure the right recyclables go into the correct bins, but there are some opportunities for jobs and skills training here. New Mexico, for example, is testing out a program that will train inmates to churn old wooden pallets into toys; shredding old towels and robes into stuffing for stuffed animals is another project under consideration. The stubborn fact is that landfill space is disappearing everywhere—and the size of the U.S. prison system makes it just one more role player in managing our resources wisely.

After a year in the Middle East and Latin America, Leon Kaye is based in California again. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter. Other thoughts of his are on his site, greengopost.com.

Image credit: Michael Letour

This is the eleventh in a weekly series of excerpts from the new book The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, October 13, 2014). Click here to read the rest of the series.

By Ryan Honeyman

Welcome to week two of the six-week, turbocharged Quick Start Guide to becoming a Certified B Corporation.

As a quick refresher, last week was focused on using the B Impact Assessment to establish a baseline of your company’s overall social and environmental performance and to create momentum before engaging others in the process. This week is focused on starting to engage others and motivating your team.

Week two : Engage your team

Time Estimate: 90 minutes

OBJECTIVE: The objective during week two is to identify coworkers who may be interested in helping you use your business as a force for good. During this week you will have a chance to get different people involved.

END RESULT:  An informal working group to help you update your B Impact Report with more accurate information.

1. Set up a summit with key internal stakeholders

The first step to securing early buy-in and building project momentum is to organize a larger meeting with the key people in your company. The invite list for this meeting might include, for example, your CEO, CFO, COO, sustainability director, marketing director, human resources manager or building manager. If you are in the manufacturing or wholesale sectors, you may wish to include key individuals from the product design, sourcing, and supply chain divisions. You want the decision makers in the room to get everyone up to speed. This will help you build momentum as the project moves forward

2. Explain the objectives and benefits

Explain what you are trying to achieve, what you think success would look like, and how this project will benefit the company. For example, you could say, “There is a big opportunity to use our business as a force for good, and we need your help figuring out how to drive our company toward this vision.” It can help to tailor your presentation based on who is attending the meeting, because certain objectives, metrics of success, and benefits will appeal to particular executives. For example:

• The CEO wants to attract and retain the best talent.


• The CFO wants to attract investors and/or save money.


• Human resources wants to motivate and engage employees.


• The marketing team may want to generate press, join a national ad campaign or benefit from a trusted third-party standard.


• The sales team wants to increase consumer trust and/or create partnerships with other mission-aligned businesses.


• Operations managers want to save money through operational efficiency.


• Sustainability managers want to benchmark performance, share best practices or earn recognition.


• Everyone wants a network with high-performing peers.

Editor's Note: This summer, Tamanna Mohapatra, a master's student in Columbia University's Sustainability Management Program, took a ride with City Harvest and got an up-close look at food waste and hunger in New York City. This is the second post in a two-part feature detailing her experience. In case you missed it, you can read the first post here. 

By Tamanna Mohapatra

A sales lady at La Bergamote, a French bakery located in Midtown Manhattan at 52nd Street and 10th Avenue, was very reluctant to talk about their food waste. The lady, who preferred anonymity, mentioned they take leftovers home.

Anna Sloane, a young sales girl in her twenties from Brooklyn, New York, was closing shop at one of the many stores of the famous Le Pain Quotidien café when quizzed about the remaining pastries in the café’s display window. She said she felt bad about the food that had to be thrown out every evening. “I try to take it with me and distribute it in my neighborhood or on the way home on the train” she said. Le Pain Quotidien reached out to us to let us know that their official policy is to donate every day:

@triplepundit Hello. All our NYC stores are proudly donating to @CityHarvest on a daily basis. More info avail. here: http://t.co/7NGtUUFyH8

— Le Pain Quotidien US (@LePainQuotidien) October 21, 2014

Josh Ramos, the night manager at the famous vegan restaurant Blossom in the heart of Chelsea at 20th Street and 9th Avenue, said of their food waste, “We typically don’t have a lot of food leftover as we try and plan all our meals in advance. Also vegan cooking uses a lot of oil, so we can’t even compost our food scraps.”

Though the reasons vary for restaurants and stores choosing not to donate their leftovers, the main cause is a “misunderstanding of how food liability works.” This is still the No. 1 reason quoted by everyone working with food waste.

Racine Rodriguez, the manager for food sourcing at City Harvest said, “The biggest concern donors have is being held liable for their donations. When adding on new donors, City Harvest will visit and train donors on what it is we can and cannot accept to ensure donors understand they will not be held liable for the donations. We assume liability through the Good Samaritan Law, a federal law.”

The reality is that food donors are protected from liability both by the federal government and New York state. The applicable law at the federal level is called the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act. It was signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996 with the hope of encouraging donation of food and grocery products to nonprofit organizations for distribution to individuals in need. The New York-specific law that helps promote food donation, but is relatively unknown, is New York State Law: Enacted 1981, Article 4-D, Section 71-2. It “holds harmless” the donor of perishable and non-perishable food to a nonprofit.

Why donate food?

Besides the financial and social benefits, preventing food waste has enormous benefits for the environment. Natural resources are expended at every step of the food production cycle – growing, transporting, processing, storing, cooking and even disposing. Each of these activities has associated and high environmental costs, such as energy and water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2006, the EPA estimated that 13 percent of annual greenhouse gas production across the nation came from the production of food. The Natural Resources Defense Council says wasted food eats up a quarter of all freshwater consumed in the U.S., along with 4 percent of oil, while producing 23 percent of the nation's methane emissions. Additionally, agriculture occupies vast expanses of land, and fertilizers and pesticides are responsible for creating environmental nightmares like the Gulf of Mexico’s gigantic dead zones.

“Every year, through uneaten food, we waste 70 times the amount of oil that gushed into the Gulf of Mexico during the three months of the Deep-water Horizon spill,” writes Jonathan Bloom in "American Wasteland."

According to PlaNYC, Mayor Bloomberg’s comprehensive sustainability plan for New York City,  food waste accounts for the largest solid waste going into landfills. It comprises one-third of the city’s more than 20,000 tons of daily refuse. Landfills are the second largest human-related source of methane emissions, and rotting food causes the majority of environmentally destructive methane.

Even with City Harvest food rescue operations increasing by 15 percent each year, there are plenty of food providers that throw food directly into the trash. PlaNYC statistics reveal, “New York City restaurants generate close to a half million tons of food waste per year – enough to fill well over a hundred subway cars per day.”

Tackling the problem in New York and beyond

To combat this problem, the city of New York introduced a program in April called the 'Food Waste Challenge' to segregate food waste from other kinds of landfill waste and make the waste available for composting. More than 100 restaurants have since signed up to participate; the goal is to divert 50 percent of restaurant's excess food from landfills.

But, in the words of Peter Lehner, executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, “With 40 percent of food in the U.S. going uneaten, it’s also important to start reducing the waste in the first place.”

Peter Lehner may be right. Composting and waste-to-energy facilities work best for food that can’t be eaten -- spoiled food, buffet spreads and such. The resources that go into growing, distributing and processing food all go for naught when we don't eat it.

LeanPath is a Portland-based automated tracking food waste prevention company that helps food producers calculate and reduce pre-consumer food waste. Dave Britton, LeanPath’s operations director, says, “Tackling and reducing pre-consumer food waste will help save on production, labor, environmental and disposal costs- all of which add up to zero if the food is just thrown away.”

People all over the world -- Americans no exception -- are obviously eating more than ever before. Unfortunately we're also throwing away more than ever before. Food in the U.S. has long been relatively cheap. We can go into any grocery story and immediately see piles after colorful piles of red tomatoes, green spinach and orange carrots. When we go out dining we are served increasingly huge portions. And with so much news about how obesity is on the rise, it always seems better to toss the leftover food than save it for the next day.

Fostering a culture of sustainability

An important part of addressing food waste has to do with a culture change. Nancy Hahn, director of operations of the successful San Francisco-based food rescue program Food Runners, had some wise words to share that New Yorkers stand to gain from. “America was built on the understanding that this is a land of plenty. Even the smallest town has their big chain grocery stores. This mindset is barely changing. Even with price increase, food is still relatively cheap, so why and how would there not be food waste?”

But, slowly but surely things are changing for the better. City Harvest’s success is a symbol of that change. The perception food companies have of hidden lawsuits is also shifting. Food stores are listening because ‘being green’ is now the ‘in thing.' The U.S. is trying to learn food-saving practices from the U.K., which has seen a lot more success in this matter.

Nancy Himmelfarb, a food waste and sustainability consultant based out of Chicago, attributes this, in part, to regulatory pressure and publicly-supported efforts by the U.K. not-for-profit WRAP. “Logistics and financials are key for any food waste effort to succeed, but public pressure and support create added incentives for businesses to take action.”

In that light, many who work to rescue food in New York City hope that Mayor Bloomberg’s new Food Waste Challenge will bring about a change in attitudes in addition to a reduced environmental impact.

The City Harvest truck made its final stop for that morning at one of the satellite offices for Coalition for the Homeless. We got out and unloaded dozens of bags of fresh bread onto the sidewalk. Two workers came out from the basement level of the office and started taking the bread down into the store room. We all had a serious but satisfied look on our faces, knowing that later that day close to a thousand hungry and homeless people would be fed a good meal of bread and hot soup. This was food that in another time and another day would have found its way to the landfill and would have caused a lot more harm than good. Here was sustainability as it should be -- one solution solving more than one problem.

Image credits: City Harvest via Facebook

Tamanna Mohapatra is a student pursuing her MS in Sustainability Management at Columbia University.