Model Executive Order on Municipal Leadership on Food Waste Reduction: With and Without Commentaries

Co-authored with Linda Breggin and Jessica Sugarman, Environmental Law Institute

Given the large amount of food that some municipalities procure and the many people that they employ, the impact of food waste reduction measures in municipal operations can be substantial and far-reaching. For example, New York City purchases $500 million worth of food each year and employs around 325,000 people across dozens of agencies. To help address this waste, NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) and the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) developed a Model Executive Order on Municipal Leadership on Food Waste Reduction, designed to give municipalities options to “lead by example” by instituting policies and programs within and across city government to raise awareness about and reduce food waste.

This Model Executive Order is a template that can be adapted and issued by mayors and other local government executive authorities to lead by example by (1) reducing the amount of food wasted throughout municipal operations; (2) highlighting the importance of reducing food waste to businesses, residents, and other community members; and (3) demonstrating food waste reduction measures that businesses and other entities may voluntarily replicate. 

For ease of use, we are providing a Model Executive Order with commentaries to provide additional information on each point, as well as a clean version without commentaries, a background memo, a sample reporting template, and a slide deck. 

For more information please contact Darby Hoover, dhoover@nrdc.org, or Linda Breggin, breggin@eli.org.