CSCP Shares Experiences With Voluntary Agreements as Policy Instruments for Food Waste Reduction @EUrefresh Picture the great pyramid of Khufu, Giza – it is estimated to weigh about 6 million tonnes. Now imagine fourteen such pyramids, and you are still four tonnes short of the food waste produced annually in the EU alone. The EU REFRESH Project sets out to find and share information and best practice on food waste reduction, to curb this wastefulness. In June, the CSCP and its European REFRESH partners met with member state representatives and policy experts for an interactive working group in Amsterdam. We shared our experiences with hosting the REFRESH Steering Committee as a national pilot of a voluntary agreement in Germany. Voluntary agreements hold great potential as key policy instruments for food waste reduction. Previous case study research conducted within REFRESH identified food waste drivers to be cross-cutting by nature, and further studies highlighted the relevance of multi-stakeholder collaboration. In light of these findings, voluntary agreements and multi-stakeholder collaboration are key policy approaches to address the issue of food waste throughout food supply chains. As the case studies in Germany, Hungary, Spain and the Netherlands revealed, the right actors to participate in the agreement must be identified and motivated. Gaps between different actors and stakeholders have to be bridged to arrive at voluntary agreements. Often, that means finding a strong business case for a company to participate in the agreement, and engaging NGOs that might initially have very divergent objectives. With disruptive approaches to gain signatories and media coverage that helps share best practices and encourage businesses, successes can be had. At the same time, regional and national differences make a tailor-made approach necessary. In some countries, policy changes create the necessary pressure to interest businesses into entering a voluntary agreement. In other countries social pressure from consumers is the decisive factor. Investigating these factors to initiate the right voluntary agreement is crucial to realising the full potential of this approach to reducing food waste. This meeting was the first in a series of four REFRESH workshops focusing on policy options to reduce food waste which will be organised between June 2018 and January 2019. Please find the agenda for the workshop here. Information on the upcoming events can be found here. For further questions please contact Nora Brüggemann. *Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash