How Retailers Are Innovating to Reduce Waste

I had the chance to join our Whole Foods Market team during a Nourishing Our Neighborhoods donation collection, and it was a great afternoon! One meaningful action had two important outcomes: helping neighbors in need while reducing food waste. Last year, Amazon donated the equivalent of 81 million meals globally, and it just makes sense to give away food that would otherwise be composted or discarded. That’s just one of the many ways we’re thoughtfully minimizing waste across all of our diverse businesses. We take a step-by-step approach to innovate solutions: trying to prevent waste before it happens, working to reduce it, looking for options for reuse, and finding ways to recycle or compost. We analyze data from our various waste streams to identify where we need to target our attention for the biggest impact, work with over 350 service providers worldwide, and invest in new materials and ways to optimize sortation. Some of the results: 1) We realized the mixed material backing from adhesive labels used throughout our operations was difficult to recycle, so we found a specialized recycler who transforms them into things like building insulation and coffee cups. Small change, big impact—recycling of this material jumped 16% in just one year! 2) Amazon MGM Studios launched the Reusable Asset Hub to house production items that can be reused on our sets, and nearly 15 productions have already benefited. 3) We sourced reusable durable carts in fulfillment centers, replacing the use of 85 million wood pallets last year. 4) Our investment in Glacier is allowing us to explore the use of #AI robotic sortation technology, to reduce contamination in waste streams and optimize #recycling processes. We’re committed to driving waste down because, as the food collection showed, it’s good for our business, people and the planet. Learn more here about how we’re minimizing waste: ♻️ https://lnkd.in/gyn9kdww Justine Mahler Priscilla Osei Okyere, PE, CHMM Caitlin Leibert Spencer Taylor, JD Jason Buechel Rebecca Hu-Thrams #foodwaste #wastediversion #circularity #circulareconomy

Food waste isn't just an environmental challenge. It’s a hidden drain on business profits. And the numbers are eye-opening. The Financial Impact 💸 Retailers lose money on unsold produce, dairy, and baked goods. Restaurants pay twice for wasted food - once when they buy it, again when they dispose of it. 💸 Manufacturers face costly inefficiencies from production line waste and packaging loss. 💸 Globally, food waste costs businesses $1 trillion every year - roughly the size of Indonesia's GDP or the equivalent of throwing away one-third of all the food produced globally each year. And much of it is preventable through better systems and strategies. Where Waste Happens - and What can be done: Inventory Blind Spots: Overordering or spoilage from poor tracking. 💡 Solution: Businesses are adopting digital tools to track waste patterns and reduce costs. Production Inefficiencies: Inefficient processes lead to scraps and losses. 💡 Solution: Manufacturers are using zero-waste production models and repurposing by-products into new products. Distribution Gaps: Surplus food often goes to landfills, not people who need it. 💡 Solution: Redistribution networks are connecting excess supply with organizations that can use it. Circular Solutions in Action: - Anaerobic digesters convert food scraps into energy and fertilizer. - Surplus marketplaces help businesses turn excess food into revenue. - Partnerships with food banks ensure edible food goes to people, not landfills. So Why Isn’t This Standard Practice? These solutions make sense - and often pay for themselves. Yet food waste is still a major problem. More than 30% of food is wasted globally every year. That’s a huge opportunity. Not just to grow existing solutions, but to spark new ideas. The companies that figure this out will cut costs, boost margins, and stay ahead of the curve. Cutting waste helps businesses save money, work more efficiently, and discover new opportunities.

Operational excellence is a backbone of retail success. Agentic AI bolsters operational efficiency by bringing adaptive automation to everything from supply chains to store operations. Traditional automation follows predefined rules, but agentic AI is different- it adapts on the fly, learning from each interaction and outcome. This adaptability is vital in retail, where conditions change rapidly (think sudden supply disruptions or viral social media trends). We’re already seeing efficiency gains in AI-enabled operations. A recent industry study found that AI-driven “connected retail” solutions dramatically increase operational efficiency, in turn boosting profits while even reducing carbon footprint. For example, AI-driven route optimization in delivery can save fuel and ensure faster deliveries, while AI-based inventory management cuts down overstock and waste. Grocery retailers using AI to fine-tune ordering of fresh products have significantly reduced costly food waste even as they increase profit margins, a double win for business and sustainability. The power of agentic AI is that it doesn’t stop at insights- it sees tasks through to execution. In operations, this means an AI agent might detect an incoming snowstorm (perceive), infer that store foot traffic will drop and online orders will surge (reason), automatically reallocate inventory to the online warehouse and reroute delivery trucks (act), then observe the outcomes to update its storm-response playbook (learn). Each of these steps happens with minimal manual input. In fact, Boston Consulting Group reports that automation with AI can increase revenues by up to 5% in less than a year by finding these kinds of efficiency tweaks across the operation. When every percentage point of margin counts, AI’s ability to continuously fine-tune operations is revolutionary. #artificialintelligence #retailAI #agenticAI

🔎 What if nearly half your harvest never reached the consumer? That’s reality today — 40–50% of fruits and vegetables are lost post-harvest due to poor cold chain and handling. It’s not just food waste. It’s lost revenue, higher emissions, and missed impact. 📊 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted annually. 💸 Up to 25% of supply chain costs are tied to spoilage. 🧊 Ice-based logistics? Outdated, expensive, and risky. 🚀 But a new generation of innovators is changing that: 🌱 Hazel Technologies – BreatheWay® ❄️ No more ice. Modified atmosphere pallet bags extend shelf life, reduce CO₂, and lower weight. 🛡️ Apeel Sciences 🍃 Invisible plant-based coating acts like a second skin, doubling or tripling shelf life — no packaging needed. 🕸️ Cambridge Crops (Mori) 🧵 Silk-protein film slows respiration and spoilage in delicate produce like berries and peaches. 🌸 FreshPaper 📄 Botanical-infused sheets for retail boxes or kitchens — freshness boost without refrigeration. 🍃 It’s Fresh! – RYPEN Tech 🌬️ Absorbs ethylene gas to slow ripening. Protects apples, kiwis, and more. 🧪 Oscillum – Stiint® 🔬 Food-contact patch that delays deterioration, keeping flavor and nutrients longer. 🌍 This isn’t just sustainability — it’s strategy. ✅ Less shrink = more profit ✅ Better shelf life = happier customers ✅ Smarter tech = cleaner supply chains 💭 Which approach do you believe will scale fastest? 💬 Let’s connect ideas, reduce waste, and redefine freshness — together. 🍅♻️ #FreshProduce #PostHarvest #ShelfLife #ColdChain #FoodTech #AgroFood #HazelTech #Apeel #ItsFresh #Oscillum #CambridgeCrops #RetailInnovation #FoodWaste #Sustainability #ZeroWaste

What if one of the biggest barriers to scaling a more circular business model wasn't the sustainable product, but the checkout process itself? For #PlasticFreeJuly, it's the perfect time to highlight how we at Google are helping partners like LUSH solve this exact challenge and make sustainability a core part of their customer experience. Lush's iconic "naked" (packaging-free) products are commendable, but they create a bottleneck at the checkout. How do you scan a bath bomb? The answer: You use AI. I'm proud that our Google Cloud AI, built with Gemini on the Vertex AI platform, is now powering Lush tills. An in-store camera instantly identifies any product, solving a major hurdle that came from their commitment to ditching packaging. The results are about more than just "going plastic free: - Lush has seen: 🟢 Dramatically shorter queues for customers. 🟢 A saving of 440,000 liters of water from fewer in-store demos. 🟢 Faster, more inclusive onboarding for employees. This is what it's all about: using innovation not just for its own sake, but to build a more sustainable and circular future for retail. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gkKEiEDg #Circularity #AIforGood #Sustainability #GoogleCloud #RetailTech #PlasticFreeJuly