Last summer Emma Marsh – head of Love Food Hate Waste, WRAP – invited her team of 20 to her house. Taking them to a local patch of land overgrown with weeds above head-height, she handed out tools and tasked them to clear the lot. “It was a really nice example of everything that Emma values,” says Annika Stott, a colleague and team member. “Teamwork, empowerment, the right tools for the job. But then it’s up to you to get on with it. This is the nitty gritty, this is the dirty work – are you up for it, or do you want to be sitting behind a computer?”
When Marsh joined WRAP – the multi-sector UK agency for waste prevention and resource efficiency – in 2005, food waste registered fairly low in the public consciousness. Through a combination of passion, determination and an unassuming ability to convince others to collaborate, she made it her personal mission to change that.
In 2007, Love Food Hate Waste (LFHW) was launched to appeal directly to the public about how food waste affects household income. WRAP first published comprehensive data on household food and drink waste in 2008, and its findings hit home in more ways than one: wasted food and drink cost the average UK family £60 a month; of the food wasted, half hadn’t even seen a plate, but simply festered in the fridge.
Under Marsh’s leadership, LFHW helped achieve a 21% reduction in avoidable food waste in the UK between 2007 and 2012. “Emma’s environmental to the core,” explains colleague Shona O’Donovan. “But she also wants to make sure this is not just about environmental gain but about financial gain. She has really helped to balance those two messages.” She once received an email from a person who had used the LFHW website, and through the savings it had made to their household income had been able to take their child on a holiday for the very first time. “That meant everything to her,” says O’Donovan.
Rather than rest on the laurels of the 21% reduction, Marsh has ensured LFHW continues to innovate. There have been: a LFHW app, targeted research aimed at helping local authorities communicate more effectively with their residents, celebrity food waste ambassadors, a national “fresher for longer” conference and cooking classes are just a few examples. The latter, says Stott, is also evidence of Marsh’s accessible approach . “The training is just three hours on what you can do differently in your homes – but people are then so empowered and enthused that they go out and cascade the message further.
“Being an unsung hero is giving everyone enough information to understand an issue and take steps and actions to address it in their own life.”
Marsh is now leading a LFHW “10 cities” campaign for 2015-16. Using the power of local messaging to help bring about national change, cities across all four UK nations will see local authorities and retailers work collaboratively to make residents and households aware of food waste and the behaviours needed to enact change locally.
Described as “aspirational and inspirational” and “beyond committed” by colleagues, she also prefers to emphasise the team over the individual and shies away from any limelight: a worthy winner, then, of the unsung hero award 2015.
And what of that weed patch near her house? “When we arrived there we looked at it and thought, how is this possible?” says Stott. “A lot of what we do in sustainability is looking at stats and baselines and figures and thinking, how is this possible? And then about five hours later, the ground was perfectly clear and flattened and ready to be planted with flowers. That’s the approach she gets us to take everyday in our jobs.”
