A new software tool promises to save Australian food businesses millions of dollars by helping them identify and track the true cost of food loss and waste.
Empauer’s Dynamic Industry Resource Efficiency Calculation Tool (or DIRECT) is a cloud-based software tool designed to measure, track and ultimately reduce food waste across the entire food supply chain.
DIRECT is the commercial application of a research project initially developed by RMIT University, in collaboration with industry partner Empauer and with financial support from the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre (CRC).
The tool’s strength lies in capturing the overall cost of waste, including non-food waste resources such as water and packaging, allowing businesses to make better decisions and ultimately improve their bottom line, according to Empauer Commercial Director Mr Victor Barichello.
“Organisations can only manage what they can measure. DIRECT is fully customisable and allows organisations to see exactly where waste occurs and how much it costs at each point in the supply chain,” Mr Barichello says.
“DIRECT provides an international level of compliance through its alignment to such protocols as the global Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard and ISO-14051.
“We’ve already shown through work done with major food businesses like Olam that DIRECT can have a major impact on assessing, tracking and ultimately reducing food waste.”
Fight Food Waste CRC Chief Executive Officer Dr Steven Lapidge says the commercial launch of DIRECT is the culmination of a project that embodies the CRC’s commitment to help reduce food waste in Australia.
“Food waste represents a $36.6 billion challenge annually to Australia as we work towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, which aims to have food waste globally by 2030,” Dr Lapidge says.
“DIRECT is a great example of industry and researchers joining with the Fight Food Waste CRC to collaborate on developing solutions for Australian businesses that reduce their costs of food waste while benefiting our society and the environment.
“DIRECT is a powerful tool and our hope is that the Australian food industry incorporates it into their operations to realise the impact it can have on their management of food waste.”
For more information about DIRECT: https://empauer.com/solutions/direct/
