Slackwater Pizzeria Teams Up With Utah State University Sustainability Team to Combat Food Waste
By Lena Morgan, Danielle Knudsen, Shar Schubach, Anthony Hunsaker
News
Slackwater Pub & Pizzeria in Ogden located at 209 24th Street. Image provided
Roughly one-third of the world's food is never eaten and the food we waste is responsible for about 8% of global emissions, according to projectdrawdown.org. When food is wasted, so are all of the resources involved like production, harvesting, transportation, and preparation. In partnership with a sustainability team, Slackwater Pizzeria in Ogden, Utah, is working to combat food waste, one 64-gallon bin at a time.
At Slackwater, mixed and glass recycling is already the norm, but they wanted to take their efforts one step further. Slackwater is actively searching for a way to implement food waste diversion throughout its restaurant. The new sustainable behavior will begin small with the employees in the prep area, then continue to evolve throughout the restaurant and across other Slackwater locations, if proven successful.
There are already businesses in the Ogden area that participate in the diversion of green waste, however, this public commitment from Slackwater to change behaviors with food waste will hopefully become more widespread throughout the community. Community-based social marketing research reveals an important role that other people have regarding sustainable behavior and individuals are more likely to adopt a particular behavior if they see others doing it first. Actions that promote sustainability are susceptible to forgetfulness in the early stages, so Slackwater plans to implement signage around the kitchen and prep area to encourage employees to engage.
The media can play a vital role in integrating sustainable behaviors into a community by providing visibility of the action. By showing the adoption of a new behavior by a smaller group or business it increases the likelihood of others in the community adopting the behavior. Slackwater making the commitment to be more sustainable shows other businesses in the community that it is achievable; their perceived risk becomes lower making it more likely they will adopt the behavior if it matches their values. Once the new behavior becomes a regular action, conversation among other groups and businesses can help to get it adopted more broadly. By making this new behavior convenient and easy, Slackwater strives to be noticed as a community innovator in the fight for climate change and sustainable practices.
Editor’s Note: As mentioned in the article, the media plays a key role in our community’s growing sustainability practices, and The Ogdenite is honored to be a part of it. Thank you to the Utah State Sustainability Team for graciously contributing this vital story, and Slackwater for taking this big step towards a more sustainable Utah.