The Future Is Green: Bradley Crepeau Of Food Cycle Science On Their Top Strategies for a Cleaner Planet
An Interview With Wanda Malhotra
Recycle less. Reduce more. While recycling is good, I think reusing is far better. I think recycling is often misunderstood as being a perfect carbon-neutral solution when it is far from that. Look for ways to swap out single-use packaging for reusable alternatives — they’re often healthier for you AND the planet at the same time!
As we face an unprecedented environmental crisis, the need for sustainable solutions has never been more urgent. This series seeks to spotlight the innovative minds and passionate advocates who are leading the charge in environmental conservation and sustainable practices. We aim to explore the most effective strategies, breakthrough technologies, and transformative policies that are shaping a more sustainable future for our planet. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Bradley Crepeau.
As the innovative founding partner and CEO of Food Cycle Science (FCS), Bradley Crepeau has transformed the company from a local start-up into a global leader in sustainable food waste management. Having sold product in over 20 countries with a diverse team of nearly 50 dedicated professionals, Food Cycle Science continues to disrupt traditional food waste management practices and make a positive impact on the world. In leading Food Cycle Science, he reinforces Canada’s commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility on a global scale.
Thank you so much for joining us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?
Food Cycle Science was inspired in 2011 by South Korean food waste management principles. With the strictest food waste policies in the world at the time, it drove innovation to find alternatives to landfilling waste. We believed that North America would benefit from additional options for food waste beyond landfilling. The early years focused on large emitters of food waste — hotels, hospitals restaurants and casinos, but the concept has remained consistent — offer solutions to food waste at the source, enter FoodCycler.
Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
Food waste is everywhere. It exists in every city in every country, but the pain points are very different for everyone. Travelling to different parts of the world and learning the various nuances of these challenges has been eye-opening. In Taiwan, for example, when the garbage truck runs its route, individuals are required to bring their waste to the truck instead of simply leaving it curbside. In South Korea, pay-as-you-throw policies disincentivize avoidable waste and promote a change in behavior that is less prevalent in North America. For me, witnessing first-hand how policy and geography can have such a material impact on a global problem has been both frustrating and intriguing. In all cases, it has reinforced my belief that technology will need to play a role in helping solve the food waste problem, but without behavioral change, we will never get ahead of it.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
I should start by saying that hard work is intentionally omitted because it’s table stakes. Without it, you don’t get admission into the arena. What I think has been most impactful in my personal journey has been:
- Attitude — trying to find the opportunity in every situation can be challenging, but maintaining a level-headedness in both success and failure is critical for any sort of sustained success.
- Grit — The tough times are inevitable. Expect it and embrace the headwinds. Hard is good.
- Adaptability — Understand and accept that the plans will change. It’s called evolution. Fail fast and forward and leverage every mistake to its full potential.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that might help people?
If you’re ever not working on new projects that should be a red flag. At Food Cycle Science we believe our competitive advantage is continued innovation — always. Our ultimate goal is to make recycling food waste more convenient and more accessible. If we can make recycling food waste easy and fun, then naturally less food waste will end up in landfills. Most of our projects have this core principle at the heart of the project initiative. These projects range from new product designs to new potential end-users for our on-site solutions.
Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of our interview. What pivotal moment led you to dedicate your career to sustainability, and how has that shaped your approach to environmental challenges?
As an entrepreneur, I think I have a pre-programmed aversion for inefficiencies. When I began to learn more about waste management and the corresponding costs both economically and environmentally it was the inefficiency that captured my curiosity. What I drastically underestimated was how difficult it would be to have everyone else recognize the same problem. The movie “Don’t Look Up” lends some thematic similarities to the challenges we see with food waste. Despite the irrefutable data it remains difficult to drive change in policy and behavior in how we combat the food waste crisis. I’ve always embraced the role of the underdog, and looking back to when this journey started in 2011, I think this definitely played a part in going all-in on food waste.
Could you describe a groundbreaking project or initiative you’ve been involved in that significantly contributed to sustainability?
When we approached our first Municipality with the idea of using FoodCyclers in every home to manage a city’s organics instead of a curbside collection program, we were effectively laughed out of the council delegation. Fast-forward 18 months and we have over 125 municipalities across 4 US states and 10 Canadian provinces who have subsidized the adoption of a FoodCycler program in some way or another. This is the type of disruption we set out to achieve. Not only is it a new product, but it’s an entirely new solution being integrated into municipal infrastructure. The net impact of using a FoodCycler over the course of its life is equivalent to taking 0.84 gas powered vehicles off the road. To think of possibilities this type of solution would have at scale is really exciting for us and for most municipalities.
Municipal programs deployed FoodCyclers to approx. 18,000 households in the last 3 years, which has helped us keep more than 6,000 metric tonnes of food waste out of landfills every year, and helped us avoid emitting over 9000 metric tonnes of CO2e each year.
How do you navigate the balance between economic growth and environmental preservation in your sustainability strategies?
Food Cycle Science is a for-profit business that has an increasingly positive impact on the environment the larger we become. A mistake I sometimes see made in companies that offer sustainable alternatives is relying on the environmental impact to achieve the sale. Sustainable alternatives cannot achieve mass adoption if they are more expensive and less convenient. It is our job as innovators and product developers to introduce solutions that are better for the environment, but also better for your lifestyle. I believe with this approach a business can achieve economic prosperity and scale its environmental impact in parallel.
What emerging technologies or innovations do you believe hold the most promise for advancing sustainability and why?
Any sustainable initiative that is more affordable, more convenient, or more accessible than the status quo alternatives will yield the highest participation rates. Sustainable products and services that focus on a better user experience while also netting a more sustainable outcome are the ones that will have the biggest impact. The leading pitch cannot be “choose us because we are more sustainable”, it needs to be “choose us because we are better than what you’re doing now, and by-the-way we’re more sustainable.”
Based on your research or experience, can you please share your “5 Top Strategies for a Cleaner Planet”?
In my experience sometimes a more refined approach can yield even greater results, so might I suggest 3 that I can relate to personally:
1 . Change your buying behaviour. We live in a world of consumerism and never before has it been easier to get what we want when we want it. From food to products, it is readily available any time of day with the click of a button. While in some ways, it can be argued as more efficient, I believe the net impact has been far worse for the environment than better. We need to be better stewards in this regard and try to optimize our purchasing whenever and wherever possible. Try to think more as a household and less as individuals.
2 . Recycle less. Reduce more. While recycling is good, I think reusing is far better. I think recycling is often misunderstood as being a perfect carbon-neutral solution when it is far from that. Look for ways to swap out single-use packaging for reusable alternatives — they’re often healthier for you AND the planet at the same time!
3 . Stop sending food waste to landfill! I might be biased here, but I believe this is one of the easiest and most impactful change we can make immediately to better our planet. It starts with making behavioral changes that waste less food to begin with and end with finding alternatives to landfilling our food waste. This doesn’t mean you have to use a FoodCycler exclusively. If you prefer backyard composting, using a worm bin, or if you have access to a curbside organics collection — these are all great options if they work for you. I encourage anyone who has their food waste ending up in landfill to take ownership of their food waste and look for alternatives.
In your view, what are the key steps individuals, communities, and governments need to take to achieve a more sustainable future?
Governments need to adopt policies that incentivize behavioral change. Use both the carrot and the stick. Broaden policies to be open-minded to solutions that may not have existed or been used in the past.
Individuals need to take ownership of their impact. Don’t turn a blind eye and wait for someone else to figure it out. Be accountable and adopt an accountability mindset to find better alternatives when available.
Communities need to inspire change. Our most successful municipal programs we have seen have been in communities that take pride in driving change. It can be contagious and small grassroots movements can lead to major compounding impacts.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
The fact that there is so much food wasted every day and yet there are still so many who go hungry every day is an unexplainable inefficiency that we must aim to correct. The logistics of the problem make it a more challenging dilemma than appears at first glance, but if I could inspire a movement where we had more individual ownership and accountability on what we waste and how we waste, I believe it would have a compounding effect to not only the amount of food we waste, but in an ideal scenario, far fewer people who go without food on a regular basis.
What is the best way for our readers to continue to follow your work online?
Our websites for our business and our product:
- Foodcycler.com (product)
- Foodcyclescience.com (company)
Follow us on our social channels or tag us with #thefoodcycler and #foodcycler for the latest news and product updates:
@thefoodcycler
@foodcyclescience
@thefoodcycler
@thefoodcycler
@thefoodcycler
@thefoodcycler
@thefoodcycler
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.
About the Interviewer: Wanda Malhotra is a wellness entrepreneur, lifestyle journalist, and the CEO of Crunchy Mama Box, a mission-driven platform promoting conscious living. CMB empowers individuals with educational resources and vetted products to help them make informed choices. Passionate about social causes like environmental preservation and animal welfare, Wanda writes about clean beauty, wellness, nutrition, social impact and sustainability, simplifying wellness with curated resources. Join Wanda and the Crunchy Mama Box community in embracing a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle at CrunchyMamaBox.com.
The Future Is Green: Bradley Crepeau Of Food Cycle Science On Their Top Strategies for a Cleaner… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.