Costa achieved a reduction of over 35% in food wastage on board its ships
Through “4GOODFOOD”, a program laying down a marker for the global shipping industry, the Italian cruise company set itself the objective of halving food waste fleetwide by 2020, some ten years ahead of the deadline prescribed by the UN’s 2030 Agenda target 12.3.
Today, approximately 18 months after fleetwide implementation of the project, 4GOODFOOD has already brought about a reduction of over 35% in food wastage on Costa’s ships.
The program has also enabled support for the “Food Gardens in Africa” project promoted by the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, with the adoption of some 100 gardens in Kenya, Mozambique, Madagascar, South Africa and Tanzania, and led to the donation – in partnership with food bank charity Fondazione Banco Alimentare Onlus – of 150,000 portions of food retrieved from the ships and distributed to 12 different charitable associations.
As Costa Cruises Sustainability and External Relations Director Stefania Lallai put it: “In Costa Cruises, every day of the year we do our utmost across the fleet to help achieve the objectives promoted by FAO on World Food Day; we do this through our 4GOODFOOD program, which comprises our joint efforts on the path to recognizing the value of food and responsible consumption.”
4GOODFOOD is a far-reaching integrated project, starting with a review of the process of preparation of dishes and actively engaging guests and crew members. An integral part of the program is the shipboard communication campaign “Taste don’t Waste”; the aim of this call to action is to encourage responsible consumption in the ships’ buffets. The campaign addresses values and emotions; it is based on sensitization not imposition, and takes account of the rich multicultural mix of Costa’s clientele and the fact that they are holidaymakers.
