Partner With Us - CET Wasted Food Solutions

If you are a government agency, foundation, or industry association, we can help you develop your wasted food reduction and diversion solutions

The Center for EcoTechnology draws from more than 20 years of experience providing technical expertise to help local, state and federal policy makers and businesses and institutions of all sizes develop and implement waste diversion solutions for many materials: wasted food, cardboard, paper, mercury, glass, metals, textiles, and more.

Federal or state agency or department
Municipal or city agency or department
Foundation
Industry group or association

How we can help you develop your wasted food diversion solution

Capacity Building and Training

SWOT Analysis. The SWOT entails a study of the policy, infrastructure, and actors that support the food waste marketplace to identify core strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to its regional growth and function. CET conducts dozens of stakeholder interviews and produces a report that provides a roadmap of priorities and matchmaking opportunities. See this example from Rhode Island.

Training and Networking Sessions. CET hosts trainings and networking sessions tailored for stakeholders’ needs. For food businesses, we share case studies and best practices in wasted food management. CET facilitates networking sessions between generators and local service providers (e.g., food rescue organizations, haulers, and composters), which help foster partnerships and adoption of diversion practices (such as this networking event co-hosted with Zero Waste Providence). CET runs training and networking workshops for service providers, offering guidance on topics such as route densification, integrating organics into existing hauling practices, sourcing high quality organic feedstock, and marketing to and training customers.

Advisory Services. CET advises governments during the design and launch of food waste programming, policy development, and investment/infrastructure planning. We act as a sounding board and share and adapt best practices from across the U.S. We work in this capacity for environmental agencies in NY, CT, RI, NJ, MD, and Philadelphia and in 2019 developed a free toolkit, Bans and Beyond: Designing and Implementing Organic Waste Bans and Mandatory Organics Recycling Laws with the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic. Read our insight: Crossing state lines: Getting the Most Out of Radius Provisions in Food Waste Disposal Laws.

Technical Assistance

TA for Food Businesses. CET provides TA to businesses and institutions that generate wasted food. We become deeply knowledgeable about the regional marketplace and then help generators identify prevention and diversion solutions, and seamlessly integrate those into existing operations. CET often works in partnership with government agencies to target large-scale generators subject to their corresponding organic recycling laws, and to offer TA to help them comply. As a non-enforcement and solution-neutral organization, CET is a trusted resource for generators, service providers, and governments alike.

Playbook for School Districts. Based on TA provided at select schools, CET develops a transferable playbook to facilitate food waste prevention and recovery practices across an entire district (e.g., this one for West Hartford Public School District). The custom playbook may include best management practices and training materials, state-specific protocols for food donation and share tables, guidance on front-of-house and back-of-house setup, signage templates, staff engagement, identification of service providers, and contract guidance.

Compost Site TA. CET works with compost facilities at any point during their design and operating lifecycle, assisting with siting and sizing, design and technology selection, recipe development, and trouble-shooting operating challenges. CET co-authored a manual with BioCycle, Community Toolkit: Adding Food Waste to a Yard Trimmings Facility, on which we offer workshops.

Resource Development and Dissemination

Case Studies. CET produces case studies featuring local businesses to elevate awareness, competency, and overall activity in wasted food marketplaces. We find examples of best practices and document them in stylized written documents (see our recent Spotlights from Philadelphia) or short videos. We work with local partners to develop a dissemination strategy, and ensure that these resources get into the hands of target users. We rely on several channels of communication and enlist local partners to circulate materials through social media (equipping them with a custom social media toolkit), partner websites, professional associations, newsletters, etc.

Best Management Practices. Informed by decades of TA along with dedicated consensus-building workshops, CET developed best management practices (BMPs) for source reduction, donation, and source separation. These are tailored for different sectors, including restaurants, corporate cafeterias, and colleges and universities. CET can help disseminate BMPs locally, can hold consensus-building workshops to tailor BMPs for regional contexts, and can further increase their appeal and application by adding local case studies that demonstrate the recommended BMPs. A recent example of tailored BMPs are these on Prevention, Donation, and Source Separation for San Diego County.

Social Media Campaign. For government agencies and industry associations interested in raising awareness about food waste and effective solutions, CET can develop a targeted social media campaign. We work across multiple platforms and can generate content and a strategy for reaching the target audience. Social media campaigns can target a particular sector, focus on prevention, or be designed to spotlight local success stories from across the food recovery hierarchy.

Contact us to learn more about wasted food diversion and to begin developing your solution!

Hear what some of our partners in Rhode Island have to say.

Hear what MassDEP Commissioner Marty Suuberg has to say.

Thank You To Our Many Partners

Thank you to our many partners who make this work possible. CET works to leverage every investment in our work to help reach our individual and collective goals.

Foundations

Federal Agencies

State Agencies

We also serve businesses and institutions directly on a fee for service basis. Our clients include Big Y, Yum! Brands, Del Monte, Blue Man Group, Covidien, Shriners Hospital, Lord Jeffrey Inn.

Take the next step!

To get started, give us a call at (888) 813-8552, email us at wastedfood@cetonline.org or fill out this form:

Thank you to our many partners from the region and beyond who make this work possible.

CET Wasted Food Solutions Partner Logos