Boe-Lillegraven, S.

Ciulli, F.

Kolk, A.

English

This blog post explains how digital platform organizations helps to overcome difficulties in the important fight against food waste. Food waste is profoundly unethical in view of the fact that one billion people in the world currently suffer from food deprivation and in addition has significant negative impacts on the environment. Digital platform organizations act as circularity brokers to connect actors in the food chain with food at risk of becoming waste to those who can use it as input or for their own consumption

International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion online publications

UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl)UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository)Digital platforms for food waste recoveryCiulli, F.; Kolk, A.; Boe-Lillegraven, S.Publication date2019Document VersionFinal published versionLink to publicationCitation for published version (APA):Ciulli, F. (Author), Kolk, A. (Author), & Boe-Lillegraven, S. (Author). (2019). Digital platformsfor food waste recovery. Web publication or website, Springer Nature: Grand Challenges.https://grandchallenges.springernature.com/users/183875-guest-contributor/posts/48729-digital-platforms-for-food-waste-recoveryGeneral rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s)and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an opencontent license (like Creative Commons).Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, pleaselet the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the materialinaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letterto: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Youwill be contacted as soon as possible.Download date:10 Mar 2023Digital platforms for food waste recovery | Grand Challenges at Springer Naturehttps://grandchallenges.springernature.com/users/183875-guest-contributor/posts/48729-digital-platforms-for-food-waste-recovery[24-7-2019 11:57:51]CONTRIBUTORDIGITALLY TRANSFORMED WORLDDigital platforms for food waste recoveryThis blog post explains how digital platform organizations helps toovercome difficulties in the important fight against food waste. Foodwaste is profoundly unethical in view of the fact that one billion peoplein the world currently suffer from food deprivation and in addition hassignificant negative impacts on the environment. Digital platformDigital platforms for food waste recovery | Grand Challenges at Springer Naturehttps://grandchallenges.springernature.com/users/183875-guest-contributor/posts/48729-digital-platforms-for-food-waste-recovery[24-7-2019 11:57:51]By: Francesca Ciulli, Ans Kolk & Siri Boe-Lillegraven, University of Amsterdam, TheNetherlandsThe existence of food waste is environmentally and socially unsustainable. It impliesan inefficient use of scarce resources, such as water and land, which are spoiledinstead of being preserved or employed productively. It is also morally unacceptable:while one-third of the food produced for human consumption is spoiled every year,one in nine people in the world are undernourished.Over the last few years the waste problem has increasingly been acknowledged asan indication of failure of the existing economic model. This understanding has beenparticularly triggered by the emergence of a new economic paradigm, the circulareconomy. A core principle of the circular economy is the “waste-as-food” concept,which indicates that the waste of one actor can be used as a resource by one ormore others. Thus, waste recovery is critically contingent on the creation of tiesbetween organizations and/or individuals for the transfer of goods at risk of becomingwaste.However, particularly in the food supply chain waste recovery is often hampered bywhat we call ‘circularity holes’, i.e., missing linkages between waste generators andpotential receivers. A new type of actor, the digital platform organization, has recentlytaken on a brokerage function to bridge circularity holes, especially in the food supplychain. This “circularity broker” is positioned along a supply chain and connects actorswith products or materials that have no value to them, on one side, with other actorsorganizations act as circularity brokers to connect actors in the foodchain with food at risk of becoming waste to those who can use it asinput or for their own consumption.By Guest Contributor on May 09, 2019Digital platforms for food waste recovery | Grand Challenges at Springer Naturehttps://grandchallenges.springernature.com/users/183875-guest-contributor/posts/48729-digital-platforms-for-food-waste-recovery[24-7-2019 11:57:51]that can use those products or materials for their own consumption or as inputs fortheir activities, on the other side. Digital platform organizations have engaged infacilitating different kinds of connections along the food supply chain, i.e. thosebetween food businesses and other food businesses, between food businesses andcharities, between food businesses and consumers and between differentconsumers.  All digital platform organizations exploit the opportunities offered bydigital technology to foster the transfer and recovery of discarded food betweensupply chain actors. Our recent study “Circularity Brokers: Digital Platform Organizations and WasteRecovery in Food Supply Chains” explores the roles taken by digital platformorganizations to foster waste recovery in the food supply chain. We find that theyconnect, inform, protect, mobilize, integrate and measure, to help fill the holes in thefood supply chain and thus reduce food waste. Fundamental to the connecting role isthe creation of a virtual ‘location’ that supply chain actors can use for making foodwaste easily available to those who are interested. Platforms also help supply chainactors by allowing food waste providers to create profile pages that others can follow,to send notifications about available food waste, to communicate with potentialreceivers through an online messaging system, etc.Digital platforms for food waste recovery | Grand Challenges at Springer Naturehttps://grandchallenges.springernature.com/users/183875-guest-contributor/posts/48729-digital-platforms-for-food-waste-recovery[24-7-2019 11:57:51]Informing implies that digital platform organizations underline the economic,environmental and/or social importance of food waste recovery to help changesupply chain actors’ perceptions and thus convince them to connect and bring aboutwaste flows. For example, they emphasize that food waste recovery means lowerdisposal costs or help for local communities in need. Platforms may also need toeducate supply chain actors to remove their pre-existing beliefs related to foodwaste, for example about the meaning of best-before date or the legal risks related todonating food. As food waste is a sensitive topic, platforms are also stepping in toensure, for example, that the food offered meets safety standards and requirementsand/or that offering food waste does not endanger providers’ brand and reputation.To help the flow of food waste, they undertake a ‘protecting’ role to make users feelsufficiently safe to offer or collect food waste.What digital platforms frequently do as well is mobilizing volunteers to expand thenetwork of supply- and/or demand-side users or to transport food from the providersto the receivers, or involving organizations that can accelerate the expansion of theDigital platforms for food waste recovery | Grand Challenges at Springer Naturehttps://grandchallenges.springernature.com/users/183875-guest-contributor/posts/48729-digital-platforms-for-food-waste-recovery[24-7-2019 11:57:51]users’ network. For example, if a platform organization collaborates with a largeretailer, its whole network of stores can join the platform as providers of food waste,thus allowing it to reach a much larger scale and have more impact. Platforms canalso introduce new practices, solutions and tools into supply chain actors’ logistics,production and/or marketing processes. The platform may, for example, beintegrated with retailers’ existing food management processes, to make the offeringof food waste as fast and easy as possible. Also, through co-creation with foodmanufacturers, a platform may find appealing ways to offer food that is ‘imperfect’due to production errors. A final role we found entails the measurement and reportingof the amount of food saved, the environmental and social impacts created and/orthe revenues generated through food waste recovery by the platform users. This isspecifically enabled by digital technology, which allows for tracking the transfer offood waste that takes place on the platform.Dr. Francesca Ciulli, Prof. Dr. Ans Kolk and Dr. Siri Boe-Lillegraven work at theUniversity of Amsterdam Business School, The Netherlands, as respectively post-doctoral researcher, full professor, and assistant professor. The researchappointment of Dr. Ciulli was funded by the Netherlands Organization for ScientificResearch; with Professor Kolk she published another recent article on incumbentsand business model innovation in the sharing economy. For more information and afull list of their publications on Grand Challenges, see www.anskolk.euGuest ContributorGuest ContributorNo comments yet.Digital platforms for food waste recovery | Grand Challenges at Springer Naturehttps://grandchallenges.springernature.com/users/183875-guest-contributor/posts/48729-digital-platforms-for-food-waste-recovery[24-7-2019 11:57:51]Copyright © 2019 Springer Nature All rights reserved. Powered by Zapnito.

Digital platforms for food waste recovery

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