Previous Webinars Covering Sustainable Management of Food Topics
The Sustainable Food Management webinars, part of the Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Web Academy, are designed to provide useful information to current and future Food Recovery Challenge (FRC) participants and endorsers and to others interested in learning about sustainable management of food. Experts from across the nation offer best management practices (BMPs) to support the work of various sectors of the FRC, such as grocers, venues, universities, and the hospitality industry. The webinars provide technical assistance to help FRC participants and others develop and implement wasted food prevention and diversion efforts. Implementing these BMPs will help organizations and businesses to:
- improve their bottom line,
- support their community,
- reduce their business or organization's greenhouse gas emissions.
This page compiles and organizes by topic the sustainable food management webinars held by the SMM Web Academy. The SMM Web Academy series is the current, free resource for challenge participants, stakeholders, and anyone else interested in learning more about SMM principles and practices from experts in the field.
On this page:
- Introduction to the Food Recovery Challenge
- Source Reduction
- Feed Hungry People
- Industrial Uses including Anaerobic Digestion
- Composting
- Tools
Introduction to the Food Recovery Challenge
| Date | Topic | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| September 29, 2011 | Introduction to the Food Recovery Challenge |
Jean Schwab, Senior Policy Analyst, EPA Scott Jenkins, Vice President of Ballpark Operations, SAFECO Field/Seattle Mariners |
Grocers
| Date | Topics | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| November 10, 2011 | Green Chill Grocers and the Food Recovery Challenge |
Keilly Witman, Green Chill Program Coordinator, EPA Laura Moreno, Environmental Scientist, EPA Region 9 Shaun Kochivar, Manager of Environmental Sustainability, Albertsons/SUPERVALU |
| December 15, 2011 | Grocers and the Food Recovery Challenge* | Michael Hewitt, Sustainability and Environmental Compliance Manager, Publix Supermarkets, Inc. Kasey Harris, Environmental Specialist, Hannaford Supermarket Heather Schmidt, Sustainability Manager, New Seasons Markets Christine Beling, Environmental Engineer, EPA Region 1 |
| January 15, 2015 | Food Waste Reduction Alliance, a Unique Industry Collaboration |
Gail Tavill, Vice President of Packaging and Sustainable Productivity, ConAgra Jason Wadsworth, Sustainability Manager, Wegmans |
Stadiums and Venues
| Date | Topics | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| November 17, 2011 | Creating Winning Recycling Programs at Sporting Events* |
Jacob Hassan, Community Recycling Coordinator, EPA Region 5 Mark Root, Strategic Account Exec with Coca-Cola Recycling Bruce Rayner, Chief Green Officer with Athletes for a Fit Planet Laura Moreno, Environmental Scientist, EPA Region 9 |
| February 23, 2012 | Green Sports Alliance and the Food Recovery Challenge |
Paul LaCaruba, Green Initiative Coordinator, National Hockey League Alina Talbott, Assistant General Manager, Petco Park Darryl Benge, Assistant General Manager, Century Link Field Ashley Zanolli, Environmental Engineer, EPA Region 10 |
| May 29, 2013 | Green Sports and Venues as Environmental Stewards* |
Syd Mandelbaum, Founder, Rock and Wrap It Up! Joe Abernathy, Vice-President of Stadium Operations, St. Louis Cardinals Brandon Hamilton, Director of Facilities, Kansas City Chiefs, Inc. |
Colleges and Universities
| Date | Topic | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| January 19, 2012 | Universities and the Food Recovery Challenge* | R. Kaye Johnston, Sustainability Coordinator, University of Missouri- Kansas City (UMKC) Corey Hawkey, Sustainability Coordinator, Ohio State University Rob Gogan, Recycling and Waste Manager, Harvard University Laura Moreno, Environmental Scientist, EPA Region 9 |
Cities and Counties
| Date | Topic | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| July 24, 2014 | Cupertino CA and Cambridge MA: Tips for How Communities Can Successfully Engage Businesses to Divert Food Scraps |
Cheri Donnelly, Environmental Programs Manager, Cupertino Public Works Department, Cupertino, CA Randi Mail, Recycling Director, Cambridge, MA |
Endorsers
| Date | Topic | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| November 6, 2014 | Be an Endorser! |
Rachel Chaput, US EPA - Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Suzanne Forbes, Wakefern Food Corp. Rocco D'Antonio, Organic Diversion, LLC Michelle Andrews, Washington State Department of Ecology |
Source Reduction
| Date | Topics | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| June 14, 2012 | Preventing Food Waste with Source Reduction: Lessons Learned and Best Management Practices |
Andrew Shakman, Co-Founder and President of LeanPath Scott Meyer, University of Texas Austin Meagan Jones, University of Texas Austin |
| August 16, 2012 | Greener Packaging – Integrating Reusable Transport Packaging into Your Supply Chain* |
Justin Lehrer, Program Manager, StopWaste.Org Michael Vincent, Director, Supply Chain Sustainability for Safeway Rick LeBlanc, Reusable Packaging News |
| November 15, 2012 | Sustainable Food Management: Food: Too Good to Waste* | Carl Woestwin, Project Manager for the ‘One Less Truck Pilot' (every other week garbage collection). Mandy Rose, Director of Integrated Waste Management for the County of San Benito and responsible for the county’s landfill operations oversight and regulatory compliance. Lisa Jensema, Recycling and Resource Recovery Coordinator, and assists the Director in Program implementation for the Regional Agency. Karen May, manages several education and outreach programs for the Recycling and Environmental Services section of the King County Solid Waste Division including King County’s Master Recycler Composter volunteer program and recycling collection events. Lisa Friend, is a Sustainability Planner for Boulder County, Colorado and has been designing waste reduction outreach programs for more than 20 years |
| November 29, 2012 | Behavior Change Techniques to Decrease Food Waste and Avoid Contamination Presentations and webinar are available via FTP |
Heather Vaillette, General Manager, Clark University Dining Services (Sodexho) Denis Gagne, Executive Chef, Clark University Dining Services (Sodexho) Steve Finn, Sustainability Consultant, ResponsEcology Brendan Coffey, Pacific Wild Catering, Oregon Convention Center |
| January 10, 2013 | Green Teams and the Food Recovery Challenge Presentations and webinar are available via FTP |
Christine Gallagher, Manager of Corporate Responsibility, Ahold USA Holly Fowler, Senior Director of Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility, Sodexo North America Aubrey Batchelor, Program Coordinator for the Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability Office, University of Washington |
| February 28, 2013 | Reducing Wasted Food at Federal Facilities | Laura Moreno, Environmental Protection Agency Barbara Hartman, Department of Veterans Affairs Dorian Wilkins Foster, Department of Veterans Affairs Lena Kofas, General Services Administration Guadalupe Novoa - General Services Administration |
| May 9, 2013 | Wasted Food -- Innovative Lifecycle Approaches for Reducing Food Waste Presentations and webinar are available via FTP |
Jeffrey Kohn, Innovations Coordinator, EPA Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response Laura Moreno, Environmental Scientist, Office of Pollution Prevention and Solid Waste in EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region Ashley Zanolli, Environmental Engineer, Office of Air, Waste and Toxics in EPA Region 10 Suganthi Simon, LEED GA Pollution Prevention Coordinator, EPA Region 4 |
| January 15, 2015 | Food Waste Reduction Alliance, a Unique Industry Collaboration | Gail Tavill, Vice President of Packaging and Sustainable Productivity, ConAgra Jason Wadsworth, Sustainability Manager, Wegmans |
| March 19, 2015 | Reducing Wasted Food: How Packaging Can Help | Todd Bukowski, Senior Packaging Consultant at HAVI Global Solutions Dr. Ronald Cotterman, Vice President, Sustainability at Sealed Air Corporation |
| November 19, 2015 |
Nora Goldstein, BioCycle John Fischer, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Josh Kelly, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Marshalle Graham, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Marshalle Graham, CalRecycle |
Feed Hungry People
| Date | Topics | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| April 19, 2012 | Food Donation: A "How-To" for Food Retailers and the Food Service Industry* | Bob Morris, Retail Donation Manager for Feeding America Syd Mandelbaum, CEO and Founder of Rock and Wrap It Up! Jim Larson, Program Development Director for Food Donation Connection |
| September 17, 2015 | Changing How We Think About Our Resources for a Better Tomorrow: How to Donate Surplus Food from K-12 Schools |
Jimmy Nguyen, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington D.C Gloria Quinn, Ramona High School, Ramona, California André Villaseñor, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Los Angeles, California Kathleen Weil, Founder and Executive Director, The Food Bus, Arlington, Virginia |
Industrial Uses including Anaerobic Digestion
| Date | Topic | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| October 11, 2012 | Food Waste to Energy through Anaerobic Digestion | Laura Moreno, Environmental Scientist, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Pacific Southwest Region Gregory Kleinheinz, Professor of Environmental and Industrial Microbiology at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Jack Macy, Commercial Zero Waste Coordinator, City and County of San Francisco's Department of the Environment Dave Henderson, Utility Director, City of West Lafayette, Indiana |
| November 18, 2014 | Managing Wasted Food with Anaerobic Digestion: Incentives and Innovations |
David Babson, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Caitlin Sparks, The Prasino Group Mel Kurtz, Quasar Energy Brandon Julian, Pure Energy Group |
Composting
| Date | Topics | Speakers |
|---|---|---|
| June 20, 2013 | Model Composting Regulations* | Cary Oshins, U.S. Composting Council (USCC) Stephanie Busch, Georgia Environmental Protection Division Angel Arroyo-Rodríguez, Ohio EPA |
| Dec 5, 2013 | Composting Strategies for Colleges and Universities Webinar* | Peter Moon, Founder and President of O2Compost Arthur Kney, PhD, Associate Professor and Department Head for Civil and Environmental Engineering of Lafayette College, Easton, PA Mark Hutchinson, Extension Professor of University of Maine, Orono, ME |
| January 16, 2014 | Building Collection Infrastructure for Composting: Success in the greater Worcester, Massachusetts Area | Sean Pontani, Green Business Support Manager, Center for EcoTechnology (CET), Northampton, MA Sandy Giancola, Preventive Maintenance Manager, Big Y Foods, Inc. Springfield, MA Paul Degnan, Materials Marketing & Sourcing Manager for E. L. Harvey & Sons, Inc. Westboro, MA |
| April 3, 2014 | Compost from Food Waste: Understanding Soil Chemistry and Soil Biology on a College/University Campus | Rachel Chaput, US EPA - Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Gregg Twehues, Co-founder of Compostwerks! LLC Peter Moon, President and principal engineer of O2 Compost Tom Goldsmith, Staff director for energy and environmental conservation at St. John’s University |
Tools
| Date | Topics | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| January 29, 2015 | Milestone 1: Preparing for a Wasted Food Assessment and Establishing a Baseline | Andrew Shakman, LeanPath Amanda Hong, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency |
| March 26, 2015 | Milestone 2: Data Analysis, and Creating and Implementing Waste Reduction Strategies; & Milestone 3: Tracking Progress |
Cat Sullivan, Northern Arizona University (NAU) Ray Dennis and Chef Dana Massimiani, Loyola Marymount University (LMU) Ismail Samad, Executive Chef of Daily Table, a nonprofit grocery store, and the Gleanery restaurant Amanda Hong, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency |
| April 23, 2015 | Milestone 4: Measuring Impact |
David Klein and Chris Henson, Costco Wholesale, Columbus OH Amanda Hong, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Andre Villasenor, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Bobby Renz, ICF International |