The issue of food waste generation is a problem that is often underestimated. In fact, food waste generation from consumption activities is significant. The Consumindful initiative with the slogan “Eat Wiser, No Leftover” is a step taken by the Indonesia Business Council for Sustainable Development (IBCSD) as an effort to contribute in reducing food waste. The project was initiated by IBCSD together with WRAP and GRASP 2030 with the support of the Danish Embassy in Indonesia.

“The Consumindful initiative is expected to further encourage positive behavior of the community and industry to reduce food waste and cultivate food donations,” said Indah Budiani, Executive Director of IBCSD in her remarks at the Consumindful launch event which took place in Yogyakarta, April 4, 2023. 

The Consumindful launch event marks the beginning of a movement to invite the public to participate in reducing food waste in Indonesia. This movement is expected to amplify the message to a wider audience to be wiser in consuming and not wasting food. Spreading the message of the importance of reducing food waste is considered important, because Indonesia experiences economic losses of 4-5% of total GDP due to food shrinkage and waste problems based on Bappenas data in 2021.

“There is an SDG target to reduce food waste at the retail and consumer level by 50%. Meanwhile, on average in Indonesia, food waste production per individual per year reaches 1-2 quintals per year according to Bappenas data,” said Nita Yulianis as Director of Food and Nutrition Vigilance at the National Food Agency in her keynote speech delivered at this event. She continued, “Integrative and collaborative efforts are needed to reduce food waste production in Indonesia.”

Changes in consumer behavior related to food waste reduction are necessary, as it is known that the majority of food waste is generated from consumption activities. Therefore, Consumindful’s campaign strategy is to encourage consumers to prevent food waste at the household level. The Consumindful initiative is in collaboration with WRAP, a UK-based non-profit environmental organization with experience working on projects related to consumer behavior change. “WRAP is excited to be working with IBCSD again to tackle food shrinkage and waste in Indonesia. Consumindful is an exciting project to support mindful consumption and realize a sustainable future for people and the planet,” said Michael Jones, WRAP’s International Partnership Manager.

The Consumindful initiative is also made possible by the support of the Danish Embassy in Indonesia. “Changing people’s habits to reduce food waste is a difficult thing to do, so innovative approaches are needed to make it happen. The collaboration of IBCSD and WRAP can create a small but impactful strategy through the Consumindful initiative with the support of the Danish Embassy,” said Hanne Larsen, Minister Counsellor for Food and Agriculture at the Danish Embassy in Indonesia. 

Consumindful is a follow-up initiative to an earlier initiative called GRASP 2030 (Gotong Royong Atasi Susut dan Limbah Pangan 2030) which was launched on September 8, 2021. GRASP 2030 is a concrete effort to unite all actors across the food system chain in reducing food loss and waste in Indonesia. A total of 22 actors including companies, associations, and other organizations in the food sector have committed to participate in this movement. This event was also made possible with the support of Kalbe Nutritionals and Nutrifood Indonesia, which are part of GRASP 2030. “Let us take real action through individual and organizational behavior, which hopefully will reduce food waste in Indonesia,” said Cogito Ergo Sumadi Rasan, Chairman of GRASP 2030.

Yogyakarta Cares about Food Waste

Yogyakarta was chosen as the launch site for Consumindful, because it is known as a tourist and student area with people coming from other regions, making food waste handling efforts in Yogyakarta very important. In addition, the Provincial Government of Yogyakarta Special Region (Pemprov DIY) also has a commitment to encourage food waste handling efforts. 

The Provincial Government of Yogyakarta Special Region, represented by Plh. Assistant for Economy and Development, Yuna Pancawati, conveyed the need to consume food more wisely and without leftovers, and underlined that the Consumindful initiative is very important in reducing food waste.

In a panel discussion session attended by stakeholders from government, industry, and academia, the Head of the DIY Agriculture and Food Security Agency (DPKP), Sugeng Purwanto, mentioned that “The DIY Provincial Government has a commitment in handling food waste through Governor Instruction No. 33 of 2021 on handling food shrinkage and waste. In realizing the mandate of the instruction, socialization and education on food waste prevention are carried out in the community as well as studies related to this matter.” Meanwhile, the Head of the DIY Tourism Office, Singgih Raharjo, said, “The DIY Tourism Office has a collaboration program with start-up Surplus that helps distribute excess food in hotels, cafes and restaurants by giving a discounted price on the food sold.”

Solving the food waste problem from various perspectives and sectors needs to be done to ensure the food waste reduction target is achieved. “The industry has a role in reducing food waste by designing products that suit the needs of consumers and support mindful consumption,” said Arief Purwanto Nugroho, Head of Communication & Sustainability, Kalbe Nutritionals. The hospitality and restaurant industry sector, which is one of the actors in the food industry, also needs to take part in reducing food waste. Said by Erwan Sakti, Executive Chef of Platinum Hotel Adisucipto, “The culinary industry can contribute to reducing food waste by conducting proper processing, organizing portions served to consumers, conducting education, and conducting unconsumed food donation activities.”

Apart from the food industry, the role of academia is equally important in carrying out public education functions related to efforts to prevent food waste. “Food waste prevention can be done with various strategies. Academia has a role to play in developing food distribution platforms, developing food waste processing technology, and educating the public on food waste issues,” said Prof. Dr. Ir. Eni Harmayani, M.Sc., Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Universitas Gadjah Mada.

Going forward, the Consumindful initiative will continue to campaign for food waste reduction efforts. Collaboration and support from various parties are needed to realize the goal of a food waste-free Indonesia. Hopefully, more and more people and industries will care about the issue of food waste and take real action in their daily lives.

Contact:

Nurina Izazi, Communication and Member Relation Manager IBCSD, [email protected], +62-813-3261-4268

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) related risks have become prevalent risks worldwide and in the Asia-Pacific region. It is crucial that businesses learn to navigate and thrive within these changing landscapes and integrate and include ESG considerations into strategy formulation and business operations. 

The ESG risk landscape is constantly evolving with financial institutions and regulators stepping up their ambitions into more sustainable financing and operating practices, making efforts to integrate environmental and social considerations into their governance and business strategy, operations, and risk management.

 The ESG NXT 2022 conference, a joint event of BCSD Malaysia and Knowledge Group of Companies, provides valuable insights on businesses’ actions needed to accelerate the system transformations necessary for a net-zero, nature-positive, and more equitable future. The conference features prominent international and local thought leaders and experts to talk about an inclusive theme, “Making ESG Actionable For All”. It aims to foster meaningful discussions that provide a multi-dimensional perspective on sustainability’s critical issues and “how-to” solutions. This conference has been skillfully designed around 4 tracks covering:

• Built Environment, Transport, and Mobility
• Energy and Decarbonization
• Food, Agriculture, Health and Wellbeing
• Products and Materials

These tracks have been strategically chosen as they encapsulate the critical areas where systems transformation is most needed and ESG ambitions and metrics need to be adequately set.

Operating in the same region, IBCSD was given the opportunity to share the ESG landscape in Indonesia and how IBCSD’s programs can support the businesses to take one step at a time on their net-zero emission and nature-positive journey. On the first day, Indah Budiani, Executive Director of IBCSD, shared how businesses define their pathways of decarbonization strategy with collective commitment and actions through the Net-Zero Hub. The Net-Zero Hub is a platform jointly developed by IBCSD with Indonesia Chamber of Commerce (KADIN) to help businesses to achieve science-based targets on net-zero emission. 

In the Food, Agriculture, Health and Wellbeing track, Bryan Citrasena, Project Manager of IBCSD, talked about the importance of addressing food loss and waste (FLW) for food and agriculture sector businesses to reduce their impact on nature and benefit socio-economic development. Tackling FLW has been underlined in the SDG 12.3 goal with a specific reduction target of 50% by 2030. The IBCSD program, namely GRASP2030, collects businesses and other supporting stakeholders in the food value chain to make food consumption and production more sustainable by reducing FLW in Indonesia. In the same forum, Tan Hong Tat, Head of Sustainability at AEON Malaysia, also shared AEON’s practices in tackling FLW and how they influence customers to have more awareness about food waste.

The conference took two consecutive days in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur. With more than 60 competent speakers, a series of presentations, talkshows and discussions was conveyed in this two-days conference, talking on how businesses need to move on from business as usual mindset to more proactive stance against climate emergency.

 

The world’s food demand in 2050 will increase by 50-100% in line with the increase in population which is estimated to reach 9.7 billion. Based on census data, Indonesia’s population in 2020 reached 270.2 million, an increase of 32.56 million compared to the 2010 data. The increasing need for food to offset the population growth has problems due to the high issue of Food Loss and Waste. One-third of the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted during the harvest and consumption processes, known as food loss and waste (FLW).

 In line with the Indonesian Presidency at the G20, the Ministry of Agriculture through the Meeting of Agricultural Chief Scientists (MACS) has an agenda to support the Sustainable Development Goals, especially the 12.3 target, a 50% reduction of FLW at the retail and consumer levels, as well as reducing FLW in the food production chain.

The Technical Workshop on Food Loss and Waste is a series of MACS agendas organized by the Agricultural Research and Development Agency (Balitbangtan) of the Ministry of Agriculture, in this case the Agricultural Postharvest Research and Development Center (BB Pascapanen) in collaboration with the Thϋnen Institute, Germany. The activity took place for two days from 5-6 October 2022 at the Grand Kheisa Hotel, Yogyakarta Special Region.

Carrying the theme ‘What Reduction on Food Loss and Waste can and must be contributed to Sustainable Intensification’, this workshop aims to obtain the latest information related to FLW reduction innovations in the ASEAN region, determine relevant FLW measurement methods, and determine appropriate policies to be jointly implemented regionally.

 IBCSD was given an opportunity to introduce GRASP2030 as a collaboration platform between private sectors and other supporting actors to work together in tackling food loss and waste on the first day of the workshop. The Executive Director of IBCSD, Indah Budiani, said that GRASP2030 would support the government and contribute to FLW reduction action in Indonesia.

 Other competent speakers also presented valuable information of FLW interventions in ASEAN and global during the plenary session. The line of speakers namely Carola Fabi (FAO), Dr. Kohei Watanabe (Teikyo University), Prof. Dr. S. Joni Munarso (Association of Indonesian Postharvest Technology Experts), Prof. Dr. Handewi Salim (Indonesian Research Association), Kuntum Melati, MA, MSc (Stockholm Environment Institute Asia), and Young Run Hur (UNEP). After the plenary presentation, the participants were divided into 4 groups to brainstorm on what needs to be done and what are the challenges in reducing food loss and waste in the region.

On the second day, speakers, delegates, and participants visited a maggot farm operated by PT Maggoprotein Alam Indonesia as one of the practical solutions to reduce food waste in the Yogyakarta region. After that, the group was brought to visit Salak (snake fruit) plantation, Foodbank of Indonesia, and Batik craft center. The workshop was closed with dinner and Ramayana ballet show at Prambanan temple.

 The Food Loss and Waste Technical Workshop was attended by 9 ASEAN countries consisting of policy makers, ministries/institutions, universities, practitioners, companies and related associations. (Bryan)