Leanpath Food Waste Infographic

Infographics are just so hot right now….well, that’s what it feels like anyway. Lately it seems that everyone is jumping on the graphical bandwagon and not a week goes by where we don’t get asked for some sort of infographic. Of course, this is all very exciting, and is happening for very good reason. Infographics embody many of the characteristics of great communications; they take a lot of complex information and summarise it down into a few, beautifully designed, key points that people enjoy digesting. A recent great example of this is Leanpath’s Food Waste infographic.

Food Waste Crisis Infographic
To try and communicate an important aspect in sustainability, Leanpath has produced a fantastic example of an infographic. It provides not only the facts and figures of food waste, it also suggests some solutions, something which a lot of infographics fail to do. And after reading through Leanpath’s infographic, you can see that the food waste issue is one of the most critical problems we face as a global society.

The Issue of Food Waste
The problems are  associated with food waste cannot be ignored. Along with the infographic, Leanpath mentions:

“Food waste is a huge problem of breathtaking scope: nearly 40% of the food produced in the US is wasted. This waste has significant financial and environmental impacts. Financially, food costs are on the rise—up 50% since the 1970s—so the food that’s being thrown out has a big price tag. Environmentally, food waste is filling up landfills at a staggering rate, producing 135 million tons of greenhouse gases every year and using up natural resources.”

The Result
Infographics and visualising sustainability in general is important if we are to get our sustainability messages out there. This infographic by Leanpath does a great job in communicating the issues and solutions of wasting food, however it’s success now lies in getting the message out there. If we are to see behaviour change on scale where it can make a difference, communication needs to be happening with both large and influential audiences. The mass public needs to hear the message, but so does industry and government, and then, by all working in conjunction, may we start to see a movement towards a world without waste.