Podcast by Footprint Media Group
21 July 2026
Serving food and drink in reusable cups and containers is one of the most impactful ways businesses can reduce packaging waste, improve resource efficiency and embed the principles of a circular economy. Yet adoption of reuse systems at scale remains low, with logistical and cost barriers often seen as insurmountable. Compass Group is showing what’s possible in the UK & Ireland by rolling out Cauli's technology-enabled reusable food and drink packaging system across a range of sectors including healthcare and business and industry, eliminating almost 400,000 single-use items to date. In this week’s episode, Cauli co-founder Ming Zhao and Compass Group UK & Ireland’s head of environment Ashleigh Taylor join Nick to discuss the journey they’ve been on in scaling a reusable packaging system and why foodservice, with its closed-loop settings, is well placed to lead a long-awaited, industry-wide charge on reuse.
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32:01
14 July 2026
It's well-evidenced that serving more plant-rich dishes is an effective way for foodservice operators to reduce the climate impact of their food offer. The World Resources Institute works with organisations via its Coolfood initiative to deploy tools and techniques that empower consumers to choose more sustainable meal options. It recently published new guidance that looks beyond the behavioural science and explores the operational challenges operators can face in successfully scaling plant-rich dishes and how these can be overcome. In this week's episode, WRI's Edwina Hughes joins Nick to share her key insights for how businesses can make plant-rich dishes the go-to choice for customers.
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34:32
08 July 2026
The annual Groundswell Festival of regenerative agriculture took place at Lannock Farm in Hertfordshire last week. In this week's bite-sized episode, Nick shares his key takeaways from the 10th staging of the event which speak to the trajectory of the regenerative movement, the tensions that still exist within it, and what it all means for farmers and businesses. In particular, Nick highlights growing scrutiny over the relationship between more sustainable food production and healthy consumption amid passionate debate over whether it matters how ingredients produced in regenerative systems end up being deployed within the food chain. As one speaker asked provocatively: 'Is a regeneratively farmed KitKat too good to be true?'
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15:56
24 June 2026
As experts continue to question the resilience of the UK’s food system amid geopolitical turmoil and weather extremes, Canada has forged ahead with developing a new national food security strategy. The document explicitly positions food security as national security and sets out how Canada plans to assert greater control over its food supply through investment in domestic production and infrastructure. In this week’s episode, Nick is joined by Sid Mehta, an expert in Canada’s food system with experience working across the foodservice, policy and consultancy spheres. Sid provides the background to Canada’s food system and explains the context behind the new food security strategy, the political economy that has shaped it, and what it tells us about the risk of relying on others to feed us in an increasingly volatile world.
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37:47
17 June 2026
In Monday’s Footprint In Focus feature we explored the implications of a new government-backed plan to triple the level of surplus food being redistributed to those in need. The plan has been pitched as an opportunity to turn the environmental problem of surplus food into a social opportunity. But it’s also raised concern that food redistribution risks being conflated with food security amid a surge in need for charitable provision. The food sharing app Olio sits at the heart of the redistribution ecosystem. It enables food businesses to offer surplus food for free to people within their local community. In this week’s episode, Nick speaks with Olio co-founder Saasha Celestial-One to discuss the origins and growth of Olio, how barriers to redistributing more food surplus can be removed, why she fully supports mandatory food waste reporting, and why it’s important to be clear about the issues redistribution can and can’t solve.
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34:12
09 June 2026
The UK Government has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 87% by 2040 as part of its seventh carbon budget. Yet comprehensive plans to decarbonise agriculture and land use remain conspicuously absent from policy papers, with food production on track to become the UK’s largest source of emissions by 2050. In this week’s episode, Ruth Westcott from the charity Sustain joins Nick to discuss why food and farming has failed to receive the same level of policy attention as the energy and transport sectors, and why farmers need greater support to produce food that is good for health and the environment. Ruth also reflects on why ministers are so scared to talk about the need for dietary change to meet emissions targets, and the kind of levers that should be pulled to get us eating less meat and dairy, and more fruit, vegetables and pulses.
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31:56