Together with The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE), Winnow collaborated with pledge makers within the UAE to draw emphasis into the significance of fighting food waste within the region and celebrate those who have already made this commitment.
Headlined by His Excellency Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, and His Excellency Omar Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, the event joined leading government and private sector entities to sign the UAE Food Waste Pledge. This was supported by Marc Zornes, co-founder and CEO of Winnow, who showcased to attendees the AI capabilities of Winnow Vision and the significant contributions made to fighting food waste through a product demonstration and presentation.
Food Waste Pledge UAE
The Food Waste Pledge was initially launched mid-2018 with the support of MOCCAE to help drive the national target of halving food waste by 2030 and further support the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Through the initiate, many UAE-based Winnow customers accepted the challenge to reduce food waste and pledged to save one million meals in 2018, two million meals in 2019 and three million in 2020.
The successes were clear, as many attendees of the event pledged their support including Dubai Municipality, Ethihad Airways, Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel, JA Resorts and Hotels and Mayar Facilities Management Company, a subsidiary of Al Barakah Holding.
In his remarks, His Excellency Dr Al Zeyoudi said: “Today, I am pleased to reaffirm the UAE’s commitment to meeting the global target to cut food losses and waste by 50 percent by 2030 in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. To ensure that we can achieve the transformative change, I invite the entire hospitality sector in the UAE to join our pledge and commit to reducing food waste in its operations now.”
He added: “The fast pace of technological advancement brings us a wealth of innovations that we can leverage to drive our sustainability agenda forward. Employing artificial intelligence as a powerful tool to manage and eliminate food waste adds significant momentum to our efforts and makes our task that much easier and more seamless. Efficient collaboration between hospitality and tech companies will inform food waste management decisions and deliver substantial benefits.”
For his part, His Excellency Al Olama said: “The UAE strives to leverage AI technologies to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and improve its performance in the global competitiveness indexes. Doing so requires synergies between the public and private sector across the board.”
He added: “Curbing food waste is an area where AI can be a useful tool and bring in tremendous benefits to sustain the sector for current and future generations.”
Marc Zornes, co-founder and CEO of Winnow, said: “The hospitality sector in the UAE is leading the charge in the global fight against food waste. We are incredibly proud of the fantastic results chefs partnering with Winnow have achieved. These pioneers have proved that it is possible to do the right thing for both their business bottom lines and the planet. However, we are really just getting started, and we look forward to scaling our impact with our partners as we work to achieve an ambitious target.”
Peter Stubbs, Director of HSE & Compliance, Jumeriah Group added, “By investing in technology, such as Winnow Vision we are using AI enabled innovation to provide accurate data which allows fact-based decisions on where improvements can be made.”
How you can join the fight against food waste
From the panel discussions, the general consensus is that food waste is a global concern that must be addressed using trailblazing innovations and a genuine shift in the public mindset in adopting sustainable and environmentally-focused consumption habits, that will significantly reduce food waste.
If you are part of the hospitality industry and are based within the UAE, we challenge you to take the pledge in the fight against food waste and join the global ambition to halve food waste by 2030. Further information can be found here.
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