Food for Thought

As the winner of the ‘Discipline of Marketing Prize for the Best Consulting Project Proposal’, Donna Hudson shares her experience working with WWF-Australia. Currently in her second semester of the Master of Marketing program 2017, Donna had to opportunity to assist them with working towards one of their key goals of drastically reducing food waste before 2021. 

Consulting Project for Reducing Food Waste

Most of you will have heard of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). As one of the world’s largest and most experienced independent conservation organisations, WWF works to tackle major global and local issues such as; the environment, ocean, climate, and more recently- food. Food is the division of which this project is based. 

As an individual I am passionate about the environment and conscious of the adverse effects that we, as humans, are creating. However, prior to commencing this project I was unaware of the huge impact that food waste has on the environment.

I am now eager to educate others and assist WWF achieve their goal to drastically reduce waste before 2021.

Food Facts 

• The amount of food waste each year around the world is enough to feed three billion people. That’s 41.25% of the world’s population!
• In Australia, more than half of all food waste occurs at the point of consumption. Yes that’s right, we are the biggest cause!
• In Australia alone we waste a third of the food that is produced and yet an astonishing 2 million Australians seek food relief each year. 
• We are likely to throw away one in five bags of groceries each week, that’s $8 billion worth of food each year. 
• Research suggests that we don’t seem to be concerned about the issue of food waste and its effects.
• The biggest food wasters youths between the ages of 18-24 years, households with a combined income of above $100k, and young families. 

So What Can We Do About All This Waste? 

The above is stipulated from existing research conducted. However, compared globally, it was identified that food waste data available in Australia is lacking. Therefore as part of my project, I intend to complete vital research that will assist WWF with going forward to reach their overall goal. 

Research includes in-depth interviews, focus groups and surveying WWF’s supporter community.

Education Is Key

The overall objective for this project is to change the attitude and behaviours of Australian consumers towards food waste by educating consumers, utilising existing channels and partnerships, whilst exploring new ones.

The challenge is AWARENESS. To achieve the objective, Australian consumers need to be made aware of the issues of food waste and WWFs involvement with this issue. More importantly, they need to care about and understand the issues of food enough to change their habits. 

After all, changes are sparked by an individual’s understanding of an issue. I hope to make a big change in Australia.

Thank you for reading.

Donna Hudson is originally from the UK but now happily resides in Australia and a current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School. Donna’s background has always been in marketing across various industries and she has an evident passion for the environment.

Donna’s top tip for MKTG6209 students:

Are you a student who has not yet completed the consulting project, or thought about which type of organisation you would like to approach? 

Don’t forget about all of the amazing non-profit organisations here in Australia who would relish on the opportunity for you to help them keep making a difference. The consulting project requires you to use your skills and knowledge to identify a marketing issue within an organisation and see it through to realisation. 

NGO’s are fantastic organisations full of passionate and inspiring people. 

Make a difference where it matters!