2023

food waste reduction ecosystem map

As part of my work at Circularity, I co-designed this ecosystem map to explore how New Zealand Food Waste Champions 12.3 can leverage their collective efforts for transformative change. This is designed to be updated with future organisations that fit the system sections to further highlight any gaps within the ecosystem to support strategy towards reducing food waste in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Aotearoa, New Zealand boasts a vibrant and active ecosystem focused on food waste reduction, involving solution providers and enablers from across the food system. With over 100 well-organized initiatives dedicated to tackling the social, economic, and environmental impacts of food waste, this sector is poised to accelerate progress toward a resilient and sustainable food system.

The Food Waste Reduction Ecosystem map highlights current solution providers and enablers, serving as a vital tool to identify gaps and opportunities while fostering connections and collaboration. This resource is freely available to the food sector, funders, and food waste solution providers, ensuring we work together toward a resilient, food waste-free Aotearoa.

The shape demonstrates the flows of change from the vision to what we’ve identified as enablers and then solutions across each stage of the food value chain.  

The vision highlights a commitment of the ecosystem, our hope is that all initiatives represented on the ecosystem can align with this vision. The vision is interlocked by system-led enablers who are clustered into key delivery areas and expertise; Funding and Policy, Evidence-based Research, Capability Building & Behaviour Change and Design & Strategy.

The outer ring showcases the solution providers, those on the front lines preventing, innovating, collecting, rescuing, cooking, upcycling, diverting and recovering food waste. These may but don’t necessarily have a linear connection to the enablers, they are amplified by them.

The solutions are outlined across the food value chain and further categorised into a simplified version of the food waste hierarchy, focussing on the higher part of a conventional hierarchy: Prevention, Redistribution, Upcycling and Recovery.