The International Director WRAP UK, Richard Swannell, and his International Program Manager, Michael Jones were scheduled to visit Jakarta from 24 – 27 May 2022 to strengthen GRASP2030 – a collaborative action in halving food loss and waste in Indonesia. WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) is a British registered charity established in 2000 focusing on climate action and working around the globe with businesses, individuals, and communities to achieve a circular economy. By helping them reduce waste, develop sustainable products, efficiently use resources and give the planet a sustainable future.

During their visits, the WRAP UK International Director and Program Manager met with the Government Representatives from the Ministry of National Development Planning (BAPPENAS), Ministry of Agriculture National Food Agency, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Danish Embassy, Sintesa Groups, and the Steering Committee of GRASP2030 to deliver GRASP2030 as Indonesia’s strategic plan – discussing the collaboration opportunities and support presented by such a transition of FLW sub-national activity, direct funding, and of how the Public-Private-Partnership can support Indonesia to tackle food loss and waste.

As Mr. Swannell said at GRASP 2030 Steering Committee Meetings, “It’s become a more important time for us to redouble our efforts, reduce the food loss and waste, get more food to those who are in need, reduce GHG and help businesses to reduce costs over that period because food waste is such a significant cost.” He would like to thank all GRASP 2030 stakeholders for the progress made so far and urge the stakeholders in thinking to redouble the efforts, to go faster to deliver more cost savings that would increase the donations because the world needs this.

Furthermore, the government hopes that GRASP2030 would help them develop a roadmap, policies, and regulations for Indonesia’s strategy for tackling FLW as well as accelerating business best practices principles. There is an appetite for the strategic FLW actions and technical assistance that can be brought. Work is ongoing preparing a Private-Public Partnership draft to assess the policy approach and funding to bring the Target-Measure-Act principle anticipated to the sub-national activity.

The GRASP2030 is a Voluntary Agreement (VA), that will bring a collective commitment and action to support the global goal of halving food loss and waste by 2030, thus increasing the environmental, social, and economic benefits for the participating organizations and for Indonesia. Currently, GRASP 2030 has 20 signatories, including 9 Core Signatories for businesses who are passionate about reducing the FLW and 11 Associate Signatories who act as supporting actors to achieve the goals.

WRAP UK is IBCSD’s Strategic Partner in delivering the GRASP 2030 initiative and has been considered the champion of food waste and loss initiatives. Therefore, Indonesia could learn and replicate the best practice of international experience. WRAP is headquartered in London, UK, and they have already been involved in global FLW actions from the beginning, working in 43 countries, and this issue is one of their major initiatives.

UK’s second national Food Waste Action Week begins today, with Indonesia Business Council for Sustainable Development (IBCSD) joining as a supporter. IBCSD will be supporting Food Waste Action Week through GRASP 2030 (Gotong Royong Atasi Susut & Limbah Pangan di 2030) by sharing assets and content about “Food Storage Mistakes” on IBCSD social media

The second annual Food Waste Action Week begins today, Monday 7 March. It will raise people’s awareness of the huge impact of household food waste on climate change and share practical advice, food-savvy behaviors, and tips on how we can all easily reduce the food we waste in our homes.

Around 6.6 million tonnes of household food is thrown away a year in the UK. This food waste is responsible for nearly 25 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, equivalent to 5.4% of the UK’s territorial emissions. The majority, 4.5 million tonnes, is food that could have been eaten and is worth approximately £14 billion (or £60 a month for an average family with two children). It requires an area almost the size of Wales to produce all the food and drink currently wasted in the UK.

IBCSD will be participating in the campaign by raising public awareness through multiple channels; Social media and website. We will also create our social media content about “Food Storage Mistakes”. Many people are unfamiliar with proper food storage techniques. Storing our food properly can help us prevent food waste, avoid foodborne illnesses and save money. We want to make ordinary citizens aware of how they store their food.

Bryan Citrasena, Project Manager for Food & Nature at IBCSD said, one of the great barriers to food waste reduction in Indonesia is to shift the public mental model and behavior. There is a mindset of ‘providing more food is better than less’ which makes the portion of the food served to consumers more than what they actually want or need to eat. Lack of information on statistics and impacts also becomes the reason for high food waste in Indonesia. “IBCSD has been promoting food waste reduction through the GRASP 2030 initiative. The GRASP 2030 brings businesses and supporting actors across the food chain in Indonesia to achieve the Goal 12.3 of SDG, halving food loss and waste by 2030, thus increasing the environmental, social, and economic benefits for the participating organizations and for the country”.

Love Food Hate Waste runs an annual survey of people’s habits and knowledge around food waste. This highlighted that 81% of UK citizens are concerned about climate change, but only 32% see a clear link with food waste. The survey helped to inform the theme of the Week and the development of materials to motivate people to act. This year, Love Food Hate Waste found that the public’s relationship with its freezers has become particularly frosty with many people not knowing how to safely freeze and defrost their food.

Sarah Clayton, Love Food Hate Waste, “Getting to grips with freezing and defrosting are big factors in preventing food from going to waste at home. At a time of rising food prices alongside huge public concern about climate change, tackling food waste at home is one way we can all make a difference and save money. For the average family with children, the cost of binning food can be more than £700 per year. So, Food Waste Action Week is all about avoiding being savvy in how we store but then use our food.”

Love Food Hate Waste is keen to show that used properly, the freezer is the king of the kitchen. In fact, freezing and defrosting just three key meat items that are commonly not used in time (fresh chicken, bacon, and sausages) could reduce waste of those items by as much as 15,000 tonnes per annum. And, when it comes to defrosting, busy households can avoid a lengthy overnight defrost by using their microwave instead – as people use a toaster to defrost sliced bread from the freezer.

Working together, we can prevent food from being wasted needlessly and protect the planet.

About

Love Food Hate Waste aims to raise awareness of the need to reduce food waste and help the UK public act. It shows that by doing some easy practical everyday things in the home we can all waste less food, which will ultimately benefit the environment, and our pockets too. Love Food Hate Waste is managed by WRAP.

WRAP is a global NGO based in the UK. It is one of the UK’s top 5 environmental charities and works with governments, businesses and individuals to ensure that the world’s natural resources are used more sustainably. It is the charity leading the UK Plastics Pact (a world first), Courtauld Commitment 2030, Textiles 2030 as well as the citizen campaigns Love Food Hate Waste, Love Your Clothes, Clear on Plastics and Recycle Now. It also runs Food Waste Action Week and Recycle Week in the UK. WRAP works collaboratively and develops and delivers evidence-based, solutions to reduce the environmental cost of the food we eat, the clothes we wear and the plastic packaging we use. Founded in 2000 in the UK, WRAP now works with partners in forty countries, across six continents and is a Global Alliance Partner of The Royal Foundation’s Earthshot Prize.

As a follow-up to the launch of the Gotong Royong Atasi Susut dan Limbah Pangan di 2030 (GRASP 2030), the Indonesia Business Council for Sustainable Development (IBCSD) together with the Waste & Resources Action Program (WRAP) held the first Onboarding Session aimed to increase signatories’ capacity in the first 100 days of their Food Loss and Waste (FLW) journey and to strengthen the relationship between the signatories. This session was attended by 42 participants from 14 Signatories on November 2, 2021, virtually.

Indah Budiani, Executive Director of IBCSD, stated in her opening remarks the current goal of COP26 is to assure the successful and impactful accomplishment of net-zero emissions through several initiatives and investment funds, which GRASP 2030 contributes. This is in line with the UN Food System Summit’s five areas of action which aimed to accelerate the accomplishment of SDGs. Meanwhile, in the action track number 1 of the UN Food System Summit, Nourish All People, the action is not only focused on providing inexpensive and safe food but also on reducing food waste and loss. Therefore, IBCSD appreciates the signatories’ commitments who have joined GRASP 2030 and strives to facilitate all signatories with experienced practitioners to be able to implement their actions through the initial phase of GRASP 2030.

During the session, Michael Jones, International Partnership Manager WRAP, and Bryan Citrasena, Project Manager for GRASP 2030 explained about GRASP 2030 Governance, reviewing the Voluntary Agreement model where the signatories were involved in several working groups with the same views on the objectives, activities, resources, and time to achieve the Target-Measure-Act approach and form a collaboration between signatories in the FLW reduction project. With the working groups, the signatories will be more focused on adopting and implementing their FLW action plan and make the most contribution to the initiatives that will be carried out. From this session the signatories are expected to have more understanding for the next steps, starting from the governance of the program, the establishment of a team, and the principle of Target-Measure-Act to deliver their commitment in reducing FLW through GRASP 2030.

Since its launch on September 8, 2021, the number of GRASP signatories has increased to 14 participants, including the Core Signatories; PT East West Seed, PT Multi Bintang Indonesia, Nutrifood, Sintesa Group, PT Kalbe Nutritionals, and Superindo. Meanwhile, Associate Signatories consist of Catalyze, Foodcycle, Waste4Change, Surplus, WRI Indonesia, Laskar Bumi Pertiwi, Srikandi Harmoni Bumi and Indonesia Food and Beverage Executive Association (IFBEC).

The second Onboarding Session will be held on the 23^rd November for the Core Signatories and 24^th November for the Associate Signatories. This next session aims to identify what Signatories can contribute to GRASP 2030 objectives and what support is available from GRASP 2030.

According to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) data, 1/3 of the food produced in the world is lost in the process or becomes waste. This fact is not only detrimental economically, but also environmentally and socially. The United Nations has specifically targeted a 50% reduction in waste by 2030 in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 12.3. In a study conducted by BAPPENAS, Indonesian people produce 184 kg/year of food waste per capita. According to data from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, food waste in Indonesia accounts for 44 percent or almost half of the total waste in Indonesia. This means that by reducing food waste, it will certainly have a significant impact on overall waste reduction.

IBCSD (Indonesia Business Council for Sustainable Development) on 8 September 2021 launched the GRASP 2030 (Gotong Royong Atasi Susut & Limbah Pangan di 2030), an initiative that encourages businesses as the main actors to collaborate with other stakeholders throughout the food system chain in developing solutions to reduce food loss and waste. The GRASP 2030 is a Voluntary Agreement initiative, where all parties join voluntarily to act together because of the urgency of food loss and waste issue. It manifests the private sector’s commitment to realize a more sustainable food chain in Indonesia.

The GRASP 2030, which generously funded by P4G (Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030), is built based on evident success of what has been done by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme), IBCSD’s partner in developing GRASP 2030

The launch event was inaugurated by Dr. Arifin Rudiyanto as Deputy for Maritime Affairs and Natural Resources of the Ministry of National Development Planning/BAPPENAS and also attended by Ian De Cruz, Director of P4G Global and Lars Bo Larsen, Ambassador of Denmark to Indonesia.

From Ian de Cruz’s explanation, it was found that there is a US$2.5 trillion financing gap needed by developing countries to implement the SDGs. The gap will be filled if the private sector and investors can work together to find a solution. “What we are doing with GRASP 2030 is a Target, Measure, Act, Invest approach. This is in line with Indonesia’s commitment and national strategy to achieve the goals of the Low Carbon Development Initiative.” he added.

Danish Ambassador, Lars Bo Larsen in his speech explained, “When we talk about the food value chain, from production to consumption, I think it is important for Indonesia to identify different strategies at all levels. The challenge for every country is that we have different targets and actors at different levels.”

In addition, in the virtual launch event held on Wednesday 8 September 2021, entitled “Reinforce Food Loss and Waste Partnership Actions through GRASP 2030”, several representatives of companies that have joined GRASP 2030 were present, including Afrizal Gindow, Deputy Managing Director of East West Seed Indonesia; Ika Noviera, Head of Corporate Affairs of PT Multi Bintang Indonesia; Angelique Dewi, Head of Corporate Communication at Nutrifood; Anissa Ratna Putri, Consulting Manager of Waste4Change; and M. Agung Saputra, Managing Director of Surplus Indonesia.

Rows of other panelists from government agencies who also support this program, among others, Dr. Andriko Noto Susanto, Head of the Center for Food Availability and Reserves of the Food Security Agency; Novrizal Tahar, Director of Waste Management at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry; Andriati Cahyaningsih, Policy Analyst for the Green Industry Center of the Ministry of Industry; Putu Juli Ardika, Expert Advisor to the Minister of Industry, Strengthening and Disseminating Industry at the Ministry of Industry, and Anang Noegroho, Director of Food and Agriculture at BAPPENAS.

Putu Juli Ardika, Director General for Agro Industry, Ministry of Industry, said that in terms of the processing and packaging industry, since 2000, food loss was recorded at around 4.17%, in 2011 it fell to 3.75%, and in 2019 it fell again to 3.26%. “We appreciate industry players participating together on how to reduce food loss and food waste. We think this effort will be quite successful,” he concluded.

In closing the event, Anang Noegroho emphasized that his party appreciated two things. The first is the tagline ‘Gotong Royong’ which is a form of social capital to build this nation in a better direction, building initiatives that are the original face of our nation. Second, the government really appreciates multi-stakeholder cooperation and does not forget about the inclusiveness and synergy of all parties.

As of the launch date, nine founding signatories of GRASP 2030 has joined, including East West Seed Indonesia, Multi Bintang Indonesia, Nutrifood, Kalbe Nutritionals, Sintesa Group, Waste4Change, Surplus Indonesia, WRI Indonesia, and PT Lion Super Indo. Through GRASP 2030, businesses can increase their capacity to manage food loss and waste, improve their reputation in terms of sustainability, gain more connections, and improve their business operation and potential benefit.