Tag: Issue 6

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Make The World Better Magazine

Sustainability Advantage: Equipping Sustainability Champions

Building a sustainable world where future generations can flourish within nature’s limits is going to take a lot of work from dedicated communities. In order to accelerate their sustainability journey, changemakers need free, accessible resources that will help them carry out this work as effectively as possible.

We spoke with Bob Willard, Founder of Sustainability Advantage, about how his platform is providing sustainability champions worldwide with the tools they need to make a lasting impact.

What was the “spark” that inspired you to start creating Sustainable Advantage content?

There were four sparks that inspired me.

First, in the mid-1990s, my wife and I became concerned about the planned location of a new water treatment plant for our community, Ajax, Ontario. We were uneasy about its close proximity to the upstream Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. Our concerns about the amount of unremovable radioactive tritium in our drinking water led to a three-year effort with multiple levels of government to relocate the water treatment plant. We were not successful. However, the intake pipe for the water plant was angled away from the Pickering nuclear plant, further out into Lake Ontario and deeper down, so the tritium would be more diluted. The experience shook my naïve faith that the people in charge were looking after us. It was a wake-up call that, as citizens, we sometimes have to roll up our sleeves and get involved. We also moved.

Second, during the water plant saga, my day job was leadership development at IBM Canada. We used learning organization principles in that training, so I undertook a part-time master’s degree about learning organizations at the University of Toronto (UofT). As the water plant issue evolved, I decided to complete my studies with courses at the UofT School of the Environment. That was an eye-opener. I had no idea how we were jeopardizing the ecosystem services on which human civilization depends. There were bigger issues than tritium in drinking water that needed our attention.

Third, also during the mid-1990s, I stumbled across The Natural Step (TNS) and learned how we were violating the four science-based system conditions for a thriving human society of a finite planet. We expect governments to fix this, but governments can’t do it alone. From my 34 years of experience at IBM, I knew that the resources, creativity, and influence of the business community were needed as well. But most companies only do things that benefit their bottom lines. We needed a compelling business case that reassured companies it was in their best interest to help address pressing environmental and social issues. I couldn’t find a convincing business case for corporate sustainability, so I decided to create one. It was my master’s thesis.

Fourth, my master’s thesis advisor casually suggested that I should convert my thesis into a book. I laughed. Why would I do that? Writing a book sounded like a lot of work. But he had planted a seed. In 2000, I received my master’s degree and retired from IBM. I don’t golf, so I decided to spend my leisure hours converting my thesis into a book, The Sustainability Advantage. I also created spreadsheets to help any company assess how much more profit it could make if it improved its environmental and social impacts. The book was published in 2002. The same year, I founded my sole proprietorship, Sustainability Advantage. 

Being a father, and soon-to-be grandfather, those four seeds found fertile ground, and my new career as a sustainability champion was launched. My family’s future was at stake. We need all hands on deck with tools that enable them to be effective change agents.

What do you consider to be your biggest success? Can you share any stories of the impact your work has had that have surprised you?

Over the last 23 years, I have written six books, one of which is available in Portuguese, and given over 1,600 talks worldwide. I have served on the boards of many not-for-profit/non-governmental organizations. I am a Certified B Corp, qualify as a social enterprise, and have earned several awards for my work. I provide over a dozen free, open-source tools on my website to help sustainability champions assess organizational sustainability performance and cost-justify improvements. Subscribers can use and tailor the 900+ slides in my six Master Slide Decks for their purposes, saving them the effort of researching and creating the slides from scratch.

I am helping sustainability champions make an impact with these resources. Occasionally, I am approached by someone who heard me do a talk several years ago and they say it changed their lives. I get asked back to do guest presentations in college and university courses and do many keynotes at conferences worldwide. “Success” is creating resources that are useful. So far, I have anecdotal evidence that they are for the thousands who have downloaded them. That’s good enough for me.

How do you feel having a platform and community help to make the world better?

“You have to do it yourself; you can’t do it alone,” is one of the leadership paradoxes I explain in The Sustainability Champion’s Guidebook. As a sole proprietor, I have to work through others. I’ve served on the boards of influential organizations like TNS Canada, the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC), and B Lab’s Standards Advisory Council (SAC). My website platform, with over a dozen free, open-source resources, helps the community of sustainability champions be more effective change agents. My 50–80 talks per year provide an opportunity to alert people to resources that can help them be more effective change agents so that they don’t waste time recreating them. It feels good to continuously hear back from kindred spirits who are making a difference in their spheres of influence with the aid of my resources.

Bob Willard

What are some of the challenges you typically face in creating content or building out your audience?

I have had the privilege of working with some amazing people to create my resources. I continuously upgrade them with new ideas and suggestions from users and reviewers. Creating content is the fun part. Building out the audience/users is the challenge. I am uneasy that well-intentioned sustainability champions may still be wasting time reinventing the wheel. I need to be better at raising awareness of my free, open-source resources.

Are there any upcoming initiatives or projects you’d like to share?

I am very concerned about climate change. I’m heavily engaged in encouraging governments, especially the Canadian government, to integrate Net-Zero Procurement (NZP) elements into their current procurement processes. NZP ensures that the buyer/government gets the best value for money by procuring the most climate-friendly goods and services from suppliers who are the most committed to science-based net-zero targets. The buying power of companies and governments using Net-Zero Procurement is a market force that will mobilize businesses in the race to net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 or sooner.

In a robust NZP system, all suppliers, regardless of size or sector, must disclose their net-zero GHG reduction targets and plans. The disclosures include their current direct and indirect GHG inventories, their commitment to science-based net-zero targets, and their plans to reach those time-based targets.

In Canada, as in all countries, over 98% of companies are small, having fewer than 100 employees. Many of them are in government supply chains and would be required to make the above disclosures. However, most net-zero disclosure frameworks and standards are designed for large companies. They are very challenging for a small supplier. That’s why I created a short, reasonable questionnaire — the free, open-source Net-Zero Assessment Tool (NZAT) — for use by small and medium–sized enterprises who do not have the benefit of in-house sustainability staff or expertise. It enables any-size supplier to self-assess and disclose its commitment to net-zero targets.

Further, a NZP system makes the disclosed scores matter. All requests for proposals (RFPs) assign a weight of 10%–30% of the points — enough to make it matter — to suppliers’ net-zero assessment scores. For example, if the weight assigned to a supplier’s net-zero score was 20% and a supplier’s overall score on the net-zero assessment questionnaire was 68%, the supplier would earn 13.6% of the 20% weight. This approach incentivizes suppliers’ efforts to attain science-based net-zero targets, improve their scores, and earn preferential treatment over their competitors.

Why would a supplier bother making these net-zero disclosures? Because their important customer asks them to and their answer matters. If a supplier chooses not to complete the questionnaire, it is still eligible to be a supplier; it just earns a score of zero on their net-zero efforts and will not earn any of the points allotted to supplier net-zero commitment in the bid appraisal. It’s the supplier’s choice. That’s the magic in the disclosure superpower of NZP: it’s voluntary, it’s easy, and it matters.

How can people help support your mission?

My purpose is to ensure future generations have the opportunity for at least the quality of life that I have enjoyed. My vision is a sustainable world in which people and businesses flourish within nature’s limits. My mission is to provide resources to sustainability champions to help accelerate our sustainability journey before it’s too late. People can support me by using my free, open-source resources to help them be more effective change agents, starting with addressing the climate crisis.

For example, my save-the-world strategy starts with helping the Canadian government implement Net-Zero Procurement. Then we can package the system elements and make them available to other levels of government and to other countries. This improves the probability of meeting science-based global GHG reduction targets in time. Because NZP gives bonus points to suppliers if they use NZP with their own suppliers. NZP will soon be used by companies, worldwide.

Net-Zero Procurement is a starter set for a more comprehensive sustainable procurement system. Sustainable procurement (SP) ensures that the buyers/governments get the best value for money by procuring the most sustainable goods and services from the most sustainable suppliers. SP creates a market for sustainable products and an economy in which the most sustainable companies thrive. When governments and companies everywhere implement an SP system that makes sustainability scores matter, we will have attained the sustainable society, economy, and environment that we want.

Then I can really retire.

This story was featured in the Make The World Better Magazine:

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Not My Problem: Inviting Newcomers to the Climate Space

It may be surprising that a lot of people are on the fence about climate change, succumbing to the negativity instead of taking action. By telling positive stories and sharing solutions, we can create a starting point for newcomers in the space and provide encouragement for those striving to make a difference.

We spoke with Naman Bajaj, Content Writer and Founder of Not My Problem, about how his platform is sparking meaningful conversations and inspiring folks to engage with the climate space.

What was the “spark” that first inspired you to start creating impact-focused content?

After completing my MBA in 2020, I had a filter in my mind: I wanted to work with startups that were doing something good for people and the planet. However, I had limited knowledge about the impact space, so I decided to talk to people who were building something in this area to learn more.

Of course, founders are busy people, juggling hundreds of different things. Why would they want to talk to someone like me? What would they get out of this conversation?

So, I decided to start a podcast series where I would interview founders of sustainability and social impact startups, where I recorded, edited, and published videos for free. This gave founders free PR and marketing for their brands, and I got some screen time with them.

I did around 50 episodes and that’s how I learned about this space. Through the solutions that these founders are building, I learned about the problems plaguing the planet and humanity. I thought it was a less overwhelming way to learn about the climate crisis and humanitarian problems that we are dealing with.

I decided to replicate this experience for others. I pivoted from podcasts to written content since I felt that it was easier to publish and distribute. In January 2021, I started building Not My Problem, a platform where I share stories of startups from around the world that are solving problems related to the climate crisis.

Not My Problem’s website

What do you consider to be your biggest success? Can you share any stories of the impact your work has had that have surprised you?

I am grateful to have received a flood of beautiful and kind messages in my inbox. They help me keep going on tough days. One message, in particular, stands out as my biggest win to date: someone told me that they use the positive and impactful stories I share to initiate climate change conversations within their circle.

A few amazing messages received from readers.

Instead of focusing solely on everything that’s not going right in the world, they introduce these impactful solutions to people in their group to start a conversation. People are more receptive when they hear these positive stories. It gives them hope that there are solutions being developed to combat the crisis, and they can become part of these solutions as customers, investors, employees, or cheerleaders.

What are some of the challenges you typically face in creating content or building out your audience?

Most of my content is focused on people who are on the fence about climate change — folks who know things are not going well, but they don’t know where to start. Since I have been in this space for the past few years, I have these biases and assumptions that come into play when I am writing. One of my biggest challenges is to make my content free of these so that it does not become overwhelming for anyone wanting to make a change.

In the last few months, I have also understood that content distribution is a beast in itself. If your content is not reaching the right audience, it doesn’t matter how good it is, unless you are writing only for yourself. I have doubled down on my distribution in the past six to seven months and have started seeing some early wins. My LinkedIn followers have grown five times and the newsletter subscribers have quadrupled.

How do you feel having a platform and community help to make the world better?

Our newsletter is read by people from 85 countries. It’s amazing to think about the wide reach of our content and the diverse audience it attracts. One thing I’ve come to realize is that you never know who is reading your content and how it might be impacting their lives. I receive messages from people who tell me they discovered new brands through my LinkedIn posts, even though I’ve never seen them interacting with my posts directly. It’s a powerful reminder of the influence we can have through online platforms.

How the newsletter has grown since it started in January 2021.

Are there any upcoming initiatives or projects you’d like to share?

One of the most common requests we receive is to compile a database of the brands whose stories we share. So, we have started putting all of these brands into a Notion board, segregated by countries and categories. Paid subscribers to our newsletter have access to this database. I keep adding 25–50 brands to this database every week.

A glimpse of the brand database Not My Problem is building

How can people help support your mission?

I have been fortunate to have amazing connections in my network who share impactful startup stories with me. This makes my job easier, as I don’t have to actively search for them. If you come across any such stories that you want me to share, feel free to send me an email or message me on LinkedIn or Instagram.

If you enjoy newsletters, consider subscribing to our weekly newsletter, Not My Problem. Every Friday, we will send positive climate change stories to your inbox. If you are able to, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to support the time, research, and love that goes into crafting each edition.

This story was featured in the Make The World Better Magazine:

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Sage Initiative: Supporting Indigenous Womxn Investors

Wealth has long been weaponized, creating divisions based on social class and excluding Indigenous Peoples from having a seat at the table. To shift the narrative and usher in true economic reconciliation, money needs to be used as medicine and matrilineal ways need to be restored. 

We spoke with Sage Lacerte, Founder & CEO of Sage Initiative, about how this collective is accelerating the rematriation of the Indigenous economy by supporting Indigenous womxn in the impact investment space.

What was the “spark” that first inspired you to start Sage Initiative?

As my mentor, Carol Anne Hilton, CEO and Founder of The Indigenomics Institute, says, “We are living in a time of Indigenous economic resurgence.” Sage Initiative was founded in 2019 and was an expression of love for all my relations, for Mother Earth, humans, and non-human beings. 

The “spark” that first inspired me to start Sage Initiative was when I learned more about how rich our Indigenous economy is and the realization that we are currently witnessing a generational shift in action and mindset toward a resurgence of Indigenous concepts of commerce. 

I asked, how can the impact investment sector contribute to the betterment of Indigenous communities in Canada? How can more Indigenous womxn take a seat at the economic table? How can impact investors participate in economic reconciliation and make values-aligned investments in Indigenous women and Two-Spirit–owned businesses?

Despite the growth in impact investing in Canada, Indigenous communities and businesses have stated that access to capital remains a significant impediment. Attracting patient capital for Indigenous-led businesses requires work on both sides: investors must familiarize themselves with potentially new business models, and entrepreneurs must be able to build their network, be willing to build partnerships, and showcase their work.

In our matrilineal societies, the matriarchs decide what the needs are of the community. So, by becoming investors, we are healing. That’s very central to the work of decolonizing, and it’s very central to the way that Indigenous commerce systems have worked for a very long time.

We want to shift the narrative because the systems of capitalism use wealth as a tool to divide people based on social class, and that system was not built with Indigenous people in mind. We are restoring our balance within ourselves and with the land. We are decolonizing wealth and restoring money as medicine.

This innovation brings an Indigenous approach to wealth. Circular in nature, our interwoven pedagogy introduces technical investing skills and practices with a balanced approach to investment that equally values social, environmental, and economic benefits. This is my chosen mechanism to promote intergenerational wealth and prosperity. 

What do you consider to be your biggest success? Can you share any stories of the impact your work has had that have surprised you?

Sage Initiative was chosen as one of the first selected projects of the highly innovative program, the Indigenous Innovation Initiative.

One of the largest impact-first investors in Canada, Grand Challenges Canada (GCC) has supported a pipeline of over 1,300 innovations in 106 countries. The Indigenous Innovation Initiative (I3) is the first GCC program delivered in Canada with a focus on innovations led by Indigenous womxn innovators. The 10 selected projects have created impact across diverse areas, such as pre- and post-natal health, sustainable beauty, human sex trafficking and sex exploitation, and food sovereignty and sustainability. 

As a result of this support, Sage Initiative has set the precedent for Indigenous womxn in impact investment globally.

This year, Sage Initiative will host our third cohort of 15 Indigenous womxn impact investors and begin our journey transitioning to scale across Canada.

Our great successes this year have been hosting our first Sage Initiative Harvest Ceremony in Victoria, British Columbia, where members of cohorts 1 and 2 gathered for a week of ceremony and reflection to provide meaningful evaluation for the Initiative.

We also hosted two pitch events featuring Indigenous womxn–owned businesses from across Canada, including Chelsee Pettit from ᐋᓃᓐ aaniin retail inc., ENB Artisan, and The Yukon Soaps Company.

We have graduated two cohorts of Indigenous womxn impact investors from Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Tofino, Squamish, Edmonton, Burns Lake, Nanaimo, Halifax, and many more.

In our evaluation, investors have reported: 

  • “Sage Initiative has allowed me to think much further into my future with more intention and critical thinking. I’ve adopted an intergenerational mindset when it comes to money, whether that ends up being my own children and grandchildren, or simply youth as a whole that deserve this knowledge and to be continuously uplifted.” – Sage Initiative participant 
  • “It’s transferred to other aspects of my life — when I stopped getting dopamine fixes from online shopping, I’ve traded it for kickboxing routines three times per day. I see my health as an investment now.” – Sage Initiative participant 
  • “As a result of Sage Initiative, I have given myself permission to spend without feeling guilty or anxious.” – Sage Initiative participant 
  • “My views have been completely altered since I myself have become an investor after being a part of Sage Initiative. I now see potential in everyone to be an investor especially the people and Indigenous people that will do good and be inclusive with their investments.”– Year 2 participant
  • “I feel worthy of money now. Money always felt unattainable. I never thought it would come into fruition for me.” – Year 1 participant 
  • “I met investors who had a good heart and were just everyday people, not necessarily working in a bank. Investors can be my aunties, my cousins, my family.”– Year 1 participant

We have also found that:

  • 100% of Sage Initiative participants feel ready to make an investment. 
  • 100% of Sage Initiative participants have made an investment since joining the collective. 
  • 80% feel they could now be a successful social impact investor. 
  • Not only did our program create the trauma-informed safety conditions to create belonging for participants, 95% of Sage participants said they felt belonging in the Indigenous Impact Investor community.

How do you feel having a platform and community help to make the world better?

Sage focuses on Indigenous-owned sustainable energy projects, underscoring the urgent need to address environmental concerns alongside social impact.

Financial capital alone is insufficient. We emphasize the importance of social capital, community connections, gift economy, and entrepreneurial mindset. We facilitate access to financial resources, networks, and mentorship. The Initiative aims to empower Indigenous women and non-binary individuals to feel a sense of belonging in the impact investment landscape. We work to transcend the current investment paradigm which privileges androcentric and extractivist worldviews.

Creating a seat at the economic table for Indigenous women, two-spirit, non-binary folks is deeply important to me. The purchasing power of the queer community is significant. The entire venture capital industry is led by white cisgender males, and because of that there is an implicit bias. 2SLGBTQIA+ founders are routinely overlooked and undervalued. Many members of the queer community relate to each other with feelings of longing to belong and feeling out of place in heteronormative environments. Not only are we looking to support Indigenous founders, but building on this demographic, it is important to define a 2SLGBTQIA+ lens in our impact investment thesis.

Roughly 2 million people in Canada identify as 2SLGBTQIA+, collectively spending $90 billion per year. I want to role model what it looks like for a queer Indigenous woman to stand at the forefront of innovation in the Indigenous impact investment landscape.

What are some of the challenges you typically face in building out your audience?

My personal journey and academic background in gender policy shaped the design of Sage Initiative. Instead of perpetuating the Western-centric approach prevalent in mainstream finance education, I recognized the importance of honouring Indigenous epistemology and creating a curriculum rooted in Indigenous concepts of commerce.

I did not want anyone in the industry to assume that Indigenous womxn’s success is due to our gender but rather our skills and competence.

I have also faced racism. Economic reconciliation will look like white people being comfortable with Indigenous people’s wealth.

Are there any upcoming initiatives or projects you’d like to share?

Sage Initiative is planning to launch our third impact investment cohort of 15 Indigenous womxn impact investors in September 2024. We plan to transition to scale in 2024 as well, with cohorts across Canada widely available to Indigenous and non-Indigenous folks!

How can people help support your mission?

We invite Indigenous womxn to apply to Sage Initiative.

If you would like to lend your expertise and lived experience, join Sage Initiative`s national network as a mentor.

We also encourage you to buy Indigiqueer-owned products and services, educate yourself on colonization and how to engage in reconciliation, and create space at the economic table for equity-deserving communities.

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RIPPLE of CHANGE: Sharing Stories to Create Waves of Impact

Every one of us has the power to make a positive change in the world and inspire others to do the same. Sharing the work changemakers are doing with like-minded audiences creates a powerful ripple effect that can spread across the world.

We spoke with Whitney Larson, Creative Director of RIPPLE of CHANGE, about how this purpose-driven magazine uplifts changemakers by amplifying their inspiring stories.

Pictured here are the five original co-founders of ROC. (Clockwise from top: Christy Schmid, Mel Sutjiadi, Cicely Belle Blain, Whitney Larson, and Kate Bouchard)

What was the “spark” that inspired you to start producing RIPPLE of CHANGE?

In 2018, I travelled to India with Christy Schmid, another founding partner of the RIPPLE of CHANGE (ROC) team, to work with the Milaan Foundation. We were there to document stories of girls who are fighting to change the education system — quite literally the embodiment of “ripple of change.” These girls are given resources from the Milaan Foundation to go out into their communities and form a group of 20–25 other girls who also want a continued education past the age that their society typically allows. We saw the confidence and strength of these girls and started talking about how we could share their stories and similar stories of changemakers with a larger audience. 

As a creative duo — a designer and a photographer — we often found ourselves asking the question, “How can we take our talents and use them to make the world better?” We realized that we could use our creativity and influence to share stories like that of Kushboo and Rajkumari, two girls from rural Uttar Pradesh who transformed their own community through education and empowerment. RIPPLE of CHANGE was born to highlight this story, and hundreds of others, in a way that will inspire and engage a global audience of volunteers, activists, and changemakers. And ultimately, encourage them to join in.

What do you consider to be your biggest success?

The story of our launch. In 2020, when everything felt dark and overwhelming, Christy and I, along with three other founders, were committed to telling stories of hope and change. As the struggle, pain, and inequity of our collective experience surfaced, we came together, built the brand, and produced and launched the first issue of ROC in under six months.

We chose grounded optimism to offer clear, tangible suggestions for how to take action. I’m proud that our perspective on how to mobilize change was able to connect others in ways we never had before.

Can you share any stories of the impact your work has had that have surprised you?

Before ROC was born, while Christy and I were in India, we spent our first full day with an incredible girl named Rajkumari. She showed us around her village and told us stories about the challenges she overcame to pursue an education. She opened her heart to us and told us about the people who lifted her up and those who tried to stand in her way. At the end of the day, we stood on the roof of her house, taking her picture as the sun went down. She turned to us and said, “Thank you — you made me feel like Superman today.”

It was such a beautiful moment and has become a kind of internal bar, amplifying people and stories like hers to create that positive ripple effect of goodwill, support, and encouragement.

Since then, we feel it when hearing people talk about what they learned from our articles or seeing the excitement on someone’s face when we discuss how we can tell their story to inspire others. We have that excitement on our internal team, but it’s so encouraging to have it reinforced by the responses and actions of others.

How do you feel having a platform and community help to make the world better?

Hopeful. And proud of all the people who have opened their hearts, arms, and minds to the ideas.

We often talk about the power of small conversations. We encourage people to speak up and ask questions, even if they’re talking to an audience of one, because you never know how far that conversation will travel. There’s no telling how your ideas and perspective might open the mind of someone who was closed off to change in the past. 

One of ROC’s favourite steps in the production process is hanging the pages on the wall and reviewing the book from a bird’s eye lens. Here, their Chicago mascot Hass, is giving it a final review.

What are some of the challenges you typically face in creating content or building out your audience?

Fear and anger can be conversation stoppers. We’ve worked hard to build a platform that encourages inclusivity. That is why the foundation of each of our stories is a personal or lived experience.

Even if you don’t understand the entire experience, you can usually relate to a person on some level and that starts to open hearts and minds. We hope readers approach our stories and content with a sense of curiosity and willingness to engage with a perspective other than their own.

Are there any upcoming initiatives or projects you’d like to share?

We have a few projects in the idea-building phase and will be sharing more in our newsletter soon. We’re looking at how we can engage individuals but also offer opportunities for companies to inspire their staff and act on their goals for social change. We’re thrilled to have three new partners on the team, Bob Roth, Jimmy Watkins, and Kara McPherson, and are working on a mix of digital and in-person events and community-builders, including an Issue 04 launch party!

How can people help support your mission?

Join our email newsletter and jump into conversations on our social platforms. We believe change happens when people with different experiences and viewpoints are willing to share and speak honestly with each other. Small, constructive conversations lead to empathy and positive movement all across the world.

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Love Food Hate Waste Canada: Helping Everyone Prevent Waste

When it comes to our individual fight against climate change, where should we start?  We all know the importance of reducing our individual environmental impact, and food waste is one area we can all work on right away, with the right tools, right from the comfort of our own kitchens.

We spoke with Joanne Gauci, Campaign Manager at Love Food Hate Waste Canada, about how this initiative is helping to end food waste by educating Canadians on prevention at home.

Love Food Hate Waste Canada’s “Labour of Love” campaign, which showcased real farmers across Canada.

What was the “spark” behind the Love Food Hate Waste Canada campaign?

Metro Vancouver first launched Love Food Hate Waste (LFHW) in the region in 2015. Then, building on the success of the regional campaign, we launched the initiative across Canada through the National Zero Waste Council in 2018. The motivation behind launching the campaign was to take a “prevention-first” approach to tackling food waste. Food waste is an urgent but solvable local and global challenge, and through LFHW Canada we are able to work with many partners across the country to inspire and empower people to make their food go further and waste less. Today, LFHW Canada represents a unique national collaboration, uniting a variety of business, government, and community champions all working together to tackle food waste in the home.

What do you consider to be your biggest success? Can you share any stories of the impact your work has had that have surprised you?

Everybody has a role to play in tackling food waste, and I think our biggest success has been engaging a variety of partners across the country so that everyone hears the same consistent messaging, whether they are at the grocery store or their community market, for example.  LFHW Canada has grown to become Canada’s leading resource for preventing household food waste due to the efforts of our partners and champions across the country.

By working together, we are able to have a much bigger impact than we can on our own, and Food Waste Action Week, which has taken place in March for the past two years in a row, is a great example of the power of aligning messaging locally and globally. This is an event that we run in collaboration with the international network of LFHW Canada partners, and for that one week, different organizations come together to raise awareness about the issue and opportunities for change. Food Waste Action Week 2023, which ran from March 6–12, was the most engaged campaign we have run since we launched in 2018, garnering over three million impressions across Canada for a week of coordinated activity.

How do you feel having a platform and community help to make the world better?

We hear first-hand that the Love Food Hate Waste Canada website and resources have helped families and individuals make their food last longer, save money, and ultimately prevent food waste. Our campaign partners are extremely active as well, sharing food waste prevention tips and messaging in their local communities, and you will see many of them at your summer farmers market. Food waste is one area where citizens can have a huge impact on climate change, and we feel proud to be working with others across the country to tackle this important issue. 

What are some of the challenges you typically face in creating content or building out your audience? 

We are lucky — there haven’t been a lot of challenges in our content creation to date; people generally love to talk about food and share their own tips and strategies for preventing food waste. However, we do a lot of myth-busting! For example, people often think that if they put their food in the green bin, then there isn’t an environmental impact. The green bin is absolutely the best way to manage unavoidable food waste, like banana peels and egg shells, but the truth is Canadians are wasting much more food than they realize. Our research suggests that approximately 63% of the food we throw out could have been eaten. That leaves a lot of room for improvement!

Are there any upcoming initiatives or projects you’d like to share?

This year we have a big focus on tackling fresh produce waste, which is the most commonly wasted food type in Canadian homes. We completed research that brings to life the journey of five different foods: blueberries, potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes, and apples. This research can be found on our website and underpins our current “Labour of Love” campaign, which aims to connect Canadians to the farmers who grow our food and emphasizes the important role of storage in keeping produce fresher for longer. 

Ultimately, this campaign is about getting people to think about the story behind their food, and all of the resources, labour, and care that went into making it. This is a multi-phased project that has been partly funded by Environment and Climate Change Canada, and we look forward to reporting on our key findings.  

How can people help support your mission? 

Share the message that #EveryBiteCounts and encourage fellow Canadians to visit lovefoodhatewaste.ca to get easy tips and tricks to prevent food waste at home.

This story was featured in the Make The World Better Magazine: