Future Food with Analisa Winther

Charlotte Aschim is CEO and Co-Founder of the Norwegian startup TotalCtrl, which makes food waste prevention software for grocery stores, hotels, and restaurants. Charlotte has been named one of Europe's most inspiring food waste change makers, one of the top 80 Norwegian leaders under 35, and is a European Green Capital Ambassador. TotalCtrl is looking to integrate with other software companies food management solutions so if you're in that space, get in touch! in this episode, we also cover:

• 1:40 How TotalCtrl works
• 6:00 Players and difference in the food loss and food waste space
• 14:50 The impact of regulation
• 16:00 The Norwegian food scene
• 21:25 Vision for the future and desired collaborations

Join our community on Instagram and find more episodes at www.nordicfoodtech.io 

K Group is the 2nd biggest grocery retailer in the Finnish market. They've been celebrated for being the most sustainable trading sector company in the world by World Economic Forum and are the only Finnish company to have made it on the list every year since 2005.

Despite this achievement, K Group has struggled to communicate the responsibility they’ve taken around their business practices to consumers. In this conversation, we speak with Customer Insight Director Heidi Jungar to explore how Kesko has approached this challenge including what sustainability in retail means to them, how they are taking responsibility, and what grocery shopping will look like in the future. 

Episode Transcript

Related Links

How other Nordic grocery retailers are thinking about the future of food

How to successfully launch new plant-based products 

Dumpster diving to shed light on supermarket food waste

Delås Farm on REKO Rings: the Nordic movement to buy directly from farms

Coop Crowdfunding on enabling their customers to invest in food startups

ICA Vaxa on developing products to shift the Swedish food system

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Since 2010, Södertälje Municipality in Sweden has served public school lunches that are healthy for students and the planet. The initiative is known as Diet for a Green Planet. 

Our guest today is Sara Jervfors who is the Head of the Diet Unit in Södertälje Municipality and an architect of the system. We talk about what a diet for a green planet is, how more municipalities could transform their lunches to meet these parameters, what incentives are missing to encourage such a diet, and how parents and kids have responded.

• 4:30 Details of the program
• 11:50 How kids vs parents respond to new food initiatives
• 15:40 The ripple effect on the community
• 18:30 What's missing to revive local food ecosystems
• 23:50 The role of politicians 

This episode is part of Taste the Transition, a series of lunch conversations during the COP25 climate negotiations highlighting individuals taking climate action through food. Tell us your vision for the food system on www.nordicfoodtech.io/answer or by using the hashtag #NordicClimateAction

In this episode, we address what we know from science when it comes to adopting diets that support a healthy, sustainable food system. My guest is Amanda Wood who is a researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Launched in 2007, the Centre's vision is to advance a world where social-ecological systems are understood, governed and managed to not only enhance human well-being, but also enable the sustainable co-evolution of human civilizations with the biosphere. Amanda was a co-author of the influential EAT Lancet report and subsequently wrote an analysis on how the Nordic food system would have to be transformed in order to meet the report's recommendations. 

• 7:30 Five actions areas that will transform the food system
• 19:00 Vision for the future food system
• 26:50 Wishlist for change from policy makers
• 31:00 Research areas we're still missing to move forward
• 35:30 Signs that the food system is changing for the better

Episode Transcript

Related Links

Nordic Food Policy Lab on policy’s role in supporting healthier diets

Gustaf Brandberg started investing in food after visiting the Stockholm Resilience Center

C40 Cities as procurement centers and levers of change

Ellen MacArthur Foundation on regenerative food cities

Daniel S Ruben on visions for a future food system

Emil Vincentz started his climate activism as a 12 year old. Today he is in his 20s and a member of Regeneration 2030, a movement led by teenagers and young adults in the Nordic and Baltic Sea Regions focused on making the United Nation's sustainable development goals a reality. He is also the founder of Symplistic, a company helping private and public organizations implement concrete solutions on environmental sustainability.

At the Nordic COP25 in Stockholm, ReGeneration 2030 will be presenting their views on the future of the food system. Join us as Emil and I discuss what actions ReGeneration 2030 is calling for from policy makers, what it's like to be a young person advocating for the future today, and ways to champion the next generation.

• 6:00 An inside look into youth climate activism
• 18:30 Key issues talked about in Emil's circle (it might surprise you) 
• 20:50 Actions for policymakers and vision for the future
• 32:30 How you should engage youth in your community
• 38:25 The role of parents and what it means to be a good ancestor 

This episode is part of Taste the Transition, a series of lunch conversations during the COP25 climate negotiations highlighting individuals taking climate action through food. Tell us your vision for the food system on www.nordicfoodtech.io/answer or by using the hashtag #NordicClimateAction

The Nordic Food Policy Lab was launched by the 5 prime ministers of the Nordic countries in 2017 to curate and share examples of Nordic food policy for health and sustainability. They do this through global partnerships and dialogues. Their goal is meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals through food policy. They also help other countries in achieving the goals.

In this episode, Marie Persson provides an overview of what is happening within food policy across the Nordics. We also take a look at the COP25 UN climate negotiations from a Nordic angle and what a sustainable, healthy diet looks like.

• 7:30 Overview of the Nordics strengths and weaknesses when it comes to food & food policy
• 9:40 Why food is such a tricky political conversation
• 16:30 Examples of individuals taking climate action through food
• 20:20 What is needed for policy to encourage sustainable production and consumption
• 25:35 Why more chefs and behavioral psychologists are needed in politics

This episode is part of Taste the Transition, a series of lunch conversations during the COP25 climate negotiations highlighting individuals taking climate action through food. Tell us your vision for the food system on www.nordicfoodtech.io/answer or by using the hashtag #NordicClimateAction

Too Good To Go enables consumers to buy food that would otherwise be thrown out at the end of the day. The idea started in Denmark and has quickly spread across Europe with everyone from mom and pop bakeries to big grocery retailers getting on board. Today they've saved some 25.5 million meals and opened up a new customer segment for many food businesses. 

In this episode, we speak with Mikkel Fog Holm-Nielsen who runs special projects for Too Good To Go's management team. Join us as we discuss their ambitious strategy to fight food waste across multiple fronts. By 2020, they aim to work with 75,000 businesses, inspire 50 million people to reduce their household food waste, impact regulation in 5 countries, and have a food waste curriculum in 500 schools.

• 2:00 How Too Good To Go got started
• 5:40 Creating a business around food waste
• 14:10 Vision for the future food system and what's missing to get there 
• 17:20 How they are fighting food waste via business, politics, education, and household behavior 
• 27:30 Company culture and why much of the team from Endomondo, which sold to Under Armour for $85 million, joined Too Good To Go

Arla is the 5th largest dairy company in the world. Owned by 12,500 farmers across seven countries, they have an ambition to become the most transparent value chain in dairy.

In today's episode, we discuss this ambition with Tomi Sirén who is the head of Digital and Technological Innovations at Arla. Based in Finalnd, he’s spearheading a variety of projects focused on moving their sustainability agenda forward with emerging technologies including the Arla Milkchain. Listen in as we talk about:

• 5:30 Arla's digital transformation
• 9:00 Arla Milkchain - how they are using blockchain to trace their products and animal welfare (see video)
• 21:00 Collaborations Arla is looking for and what obstacles they are facing to scale
• 26:00 Other sustainability projects at Arla
• 28:40 Vision for the future and what we're missing to get there

Almi Invest is Sweden’s most active startup investor. With 3 billion SEK under management, they make about 50 new investments each year and have invested in 660 companies overall, some of which have been acquired by Google, Microsoft, and Apple or IPOed at a billion kroner level on the stock market. 

Join us as we speak with investment manager Karin Ebbinghaus about Almi's GreenTech fund, which only invests in companies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The fund has about 650 million SEK under management or 60 million euro. Listen in as we talk about:

• 3:50 Almi's investment thesis 
• 15:10 What a GreenTech model looks 
• 17:35 How to measure a GreenTech model's impact
• 21:20 How Almi's GreenTech fund fits into Swedens' national strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050
• 30:10 Almi's vision for FoodTech ecosystem in 10-15 years

By 2050, an estimated 80% of all food will be destined for our global cities. To understand how we can make the food systems of our cities sustainable, resilient, and diverse our guest today is Emma Chow - the Project Lead for the Food Initiative at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation was launched in 2010 to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. In 2019, they launched a food initiative focused on convening food brands, producers, retailers, governments, innovators, and waste managers to redesign the food system serving cities to:

1. Source food regeneratively and locally when appropriate
2. Design and market healthier food products
3. Make the most of food by upcycling waste streams.

London, São Paulo and NYC have signed on as flagship cities to show what is possible. Join us in a wide-ranging conversation as we discuss the role of cities as power nodes in the food system as well as a circular vision for the future and the practical next steps for getting there. Whether you are a citizen, entrepreneur, policymaker, or researcher, there are clear actions for you!