Onboarding cities to a food waste reduction initiative

Up to 40 percent of food gets thrown out in the U.S. Around the world, cities are committing to a goal to halve this food waste by the year 2030. The Food Matters initiative at NRDC aims to help cities develop holistic programs to reach that goal: providing subject matter expertise, gathering data, linking various city programs, among other activities. 

Though the solutions are complex, NRDC wanted a simple way to introduce the initiative to mayors and other city leaders in sanitation, planning, health, and other departments. Ideally, they would be able to communicate something at the inaugural Food Matters City Summit in New York City, where representatives from 25 cities would be in attendance, curious and ready to learn about successful approaches to reducing food waste.

In response, Openbox created a three-and-a-half minute film to be presented at the summit. We interviewed NRDC, funders, and city officials to find out what reducing food waste means to them. We shot, edited and scored the film, and we created the accompanying graphics. The resulting narrative provides visual evidence of cities coming together and partnering with NRDC to address the environmental, economic, and societal impacts of food waste.