Yume founder and CEO Katy Barfield was a winner in the Business and Entrepreneur category at this years Australian Financial Review 100 Women of Influence Awards, for her innovation and leadership working to tackle food waste.
“It is a great honour to receive this recognition, a testament to the importance of the work we are doing at Yume,” Ms Barfield said.
“We thank AFR, Qantas, Sodexo, Korn Ferry and the incredible panel of judges for increasing awareness that there is a solution for commercial food industry waste in Australia.”
Launched in 2016, Yume is a commercial online marketplace that connects food suppliers, manufactures, producers and importers of quality surplus food to commercial buyers.
“We’re urgently calling on all food manufacturers and primary producers to join Yume, so that we can help prevent this food, which takes time, money and valuable resources to grow, pick, pack and distribute, from going to waste,” Ms Barfield said.
According to a Yume statement, the marketplace, which works with leading food manufacturers, such as Kellogg’s and Mondelez, and food service organisations such as Sodexo and Accor Hotels, has sold over 1,200,000 kilograms of surplus food, returning $4.5 million to Australian farmers and manufacturers.
“In doing so, the award-winning social enterprise – one of only two companies globally using technology to offer an innovative market for surplus food – has saved an estimated 84 million litres of embodied water and prevented 2442 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being released,” the statement reads.
The Australian Financial Review 100 Women of Influence Awards aim to increase the visibility of female leadership and highlight the important contribution women make in creating a bold and diverse future for Australia.
With a record number of nominations this year, Financial Review Editor-in-Chief Michael Stutchbury said selecting the category winners and overall winner was challenging.
“The calibre of this year’s entrants in the 2019 Women of Influence awards was extremely high, and it was hard enough to choose the top 100,” Mr Stuchbury said.
Related stories:
- Yume and REMONDIS working together to reduce food waste
- Yume Food wins three Premier’s Sustainability Awards
- Australians throw away $8.9 billion in food annually