NEWS RELEASE
CITY OF GUELPH
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Guelph has received a $500,000 grant from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ (FCM) Green Municipal Fund (GMF) to reduce food waste. The funding will support three pilot programs:
Food Redistribution: Starting this month, this project will capture surplus edible food and redistribute it to charity organizations using the B12Give app.
Organics Collection: This ongoing project expands a cooperative model for organics collection in the Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional (IC&I) sector to divert food waste from landfills.
Energy Generation: This project explores the feasibility of generating energy from organics processing through anaerobic digestion.
This funding will offer the City of Guelph the tools to implement a holistic and circular solution to food waste from the Industrial, Commercial and Institutional (IC&I) sector, keeping food at its highest value through surplus edible food donations, while also driving affordability of organic waste diversion services. This will be especially significant for smaller and mid-sized IC&I establishments that are typically charged significant premiums to access organics services.
“We are very pleased to receive the FCM grant as we continue to strive to minimize food waste in Guelph,” said Mayor Cam Guthrie, City of Guelph.
“This represents an important step towards our vision for an inclusive, connected, prosperous city where we look after each other and our environment. Not only will we be able to save surplus edible food that is being unnecessarily discarded, but we can also redirect it to community agencies and organizations to distribute it to those who need food assistance. Thank you to city staff for their efforts to secure this invaluable grant.”
“There is excitement and momentum to pursue these projects to the benefit of our city and communities,” added Tara Baker, CAO, City of Guelph.
“We are living in times that require smart solutions to help improve the sustainability of our resources. This includes trying innovative technologies to create and capture energy from food waste processing. This would support our goals to become a net zero carbon community by 2050.”
The 2021 Food Material Flow Study identified the IC&I sector as a major source of food waste in Guelph-Wellington, producing 16,500 tonnes annually, which is over 45 per cent of the total food waste. A 2022 feasibility study explored interventions for economic, environmental, social, and well-being outcomes.
The $500,000 funding, achieved with Circular Innovation Council and Dillon Consulting, supports three pilot projects based on these studies to reduce IC&I food waste.
FCM’s Green Municipal Fund (GMF) is a globally unique organization providing funding and education to municipalities to help them both reach net-zero and build resilient communities, while also delivering economic and social benefits such as jobs, housing and infrastructure.
Since inception in 2000, it has helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2.9 million tonnes, funded nearly 13,100 person-years of employment, enabled nearly 30,000 sustainable affordable housing units, and contributed $1.24 billion to the national GDP via the more than 2,300 approved projects. GMF manages approximately $2.4 billion in programs funded by the Government of Canada.
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